Bird Flu Center

Indonesia’s laboratories are still inefficient when it comes to rapid assessment of a bird flu patient and making a diagnostic. While in Vietnam such a case requires one day of testing, in Indonesia the great majority of avian influenza patients are diagnosed after three days. This is the warning given just recently by Dr. Santoso Suroso, the director of the Sulianti Saroso Infectious Disease Hospital in Jakarta. This is of particular importance with a disease such as bird flu, where quick and effective treatment is needed to give the patient any chance of survival. There are only three national laboratories that can test samples for avian influenza and all three lie in the capital city, Jakarta. However, samples come in by the thousands and from all over the country. For that reason, Indonesian authorities have taken the measure of building eight other regional laboratories, to help in the detection effort.