Indonesia runs airport bird flu drill

Indonesian
authorities on Sunday wrapped up a major three-day
bird flu drill on the resort island of Bali with an exercise focused on
passengers at the island’s international airport. In the simulation, departing
passengers were made to pass a scanner that detects body temperature. Among the
travelers were three undercover personnel who simulated having high fever but
insisted on leaving on their flights. Staff steered them to a clinic at the
airport and when test results showed they might have bird flu infections, the
three were sent to the main hospital in Denpasar. Despite posters notifying the
public of the exercise, some tourists appeared concerned by the operations, as
all personnel involved in the operation were wearing face masks. “We were
a bit worried but then we saw the posters. It’s fine, better be prepared,”
said Angela Foster, an Australian tourist who was to fly back home through the
 airport.

“It is important as part of our bird flu
containment efforts. We do not want to export a disease,” I Nyoman Kandun,
the health ministry’s director general for handling of infectious disease, told
journalists at the airport. The simulation was the last part of a national
exercise practicing how to contain the spread of a bird flu outbreak. Indonesia is the nation worst hit by the bird flu so far,
with 107 dead since the first human case appeared here in 2005. Transmissions
have so far been from bird to human but experts worry that the H5N1 virus that
causes the disease could mutate and allow human-to-human transmission, leading
to a pandemic.