Pandemi flu merupakan peristiwa alami yang muncul dari masa ke masa. Di abad 20 peristiwa pandemi flu terjadi pada 1918, 1957 dan 1968, mengambil korban jutaan manusia di seluruh dunia. Para ahli memperkirakan pandemi flu berikutnya akan segera tiba.

Pandemi adalah epidemi suatu penyakit yang menyebar secara cepat, menulari berbagai negara di seluruh dunia. Sementara epidemi adalah peristiwa penularan penyakit secara cepat dalam satu populasi.

Efek dari pandemi flu bisa lebih berat dari flu biasa. Gejalanya lebih sederhana namun risiko kematiannya lebih tinggi. Virus flu selalu berubah, dengan karakteristik baru. Jika virus flu itu sangat berbeda dengan virus flu lainnya, maka akan banyak orang yang tidak imun, mudah terserang. Virus pun akan menyebar dengan cepat dan menjadi pandemi.

Virus flu burung hanya menyerang unggas. Ketika virus itu mampu menjangkiti manusia dan menyebabkan kematian, maka cepat atau lambat virus ini akan bercampur dengan virus flu manusia, dan melahirkan virus flu jenis baru yang berpotensi pandemis. Jika itu terjadi, maka setiap kelambanan akan membawa korban, tenaga penolong semakin hari semakin berkurang. Setiap daerah tak akan bisa membantu daerah lainnya. Jangan sampai nyawa satu desa hilang hanya karena tidak tahu apa yang harus dilakukan.

Untuk itu, marilah kita bantu pemerintah dalam upayanya merancang dan mempersiapkan langkah-langkah dalam melindungi Indonesia dari ancaman pandemi. Saat pandemi terjadi, adalah kemampuan layanan kesehatan lokal beserta infrastruktur sosial-ekonominya yang menjadi sandaran utama. Masing-masing lokal memiliki karakteristik permasalahan yang berbeda, berdayakanlah lingkungan kita sesuai dengan karakternya agar lebih efisien dan cepat tepat pada sasaran.

Mengingat kondisi geografis dan ekonomis negara kita, masih banyak yang bisa dan perlu dilakukan. Upayakan setiap keluarga tahu apa saja yang harus disediakan di rumah, setiap manajer, pemimpin, kepala keluarga harus tahu apa yang patut dilakukan jika hal yang terburuk akhirnya terjadi juga...

Gejala flu burung
Heboh tuduhan Menteri Kesehatan dalam bukunya, Radio ABC dalam The World Today, hari ini menyiarkan wawancara reporter Barbara Miller dengan Professor Anne Kelso, direktur WHO di Melbourne dan Ian Gust dari Universitas Melbourne :

BARBARA MILLER: It’s no secret that Indonesia distrusts the system under which countries around the world share samples of the bird flu virus.
For the past year Indonesian authorities have refused to share most of their samples from human victims because of concerns that they would have to pay a prohibitively high price for any vaccinations developed as a result.

But in her new book the country’s Health Minister goes much further with her criticism.
Dr Siti Fadilah Supari says the management of global health issues favours what she calls neo-colonialist countries and criminals in the World Health Organization, who stand to profit from the vaccinations.
Professor Anne Kelso, the director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Influenza in Melbourne, says she’s saddened by the accusations.

ANNE KELSO: Well, of course we don’t feel about it that way. We feel we are working for global public benefit by monitoring how this virus is changing as it moves around the world. We don’t personally profit in any way from that work. We simply try to do our technical job.

I have heard this view expressed by the Minister of Health of Indonesia and it’s very difficult for us to hear it because it does contrast so much with our own feeling about the public value of our work.

But from their point of view, I suppose this is an important bargaining chip in trying to achieve greater benefits for Indonesia so I can understand it to that extent.

BARBARA MILLER: Do you think the comments are unfortunate?

ANNE KELSO: Oh, of course we are very sad about them but that is just one of the risks of working in a world where many people have different opinions and a different perspective and it is often useful to realise that people can have such a different perspective on something that we do.

We have to learn to work with that and try to solve the underlying problems rather than be distracted by the rhetoric I think.

BARBARA MILLER: Ian Gust, a Professorial Fellow in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Melbourne says the view of the Indonesian Health Minister is simply inaccurate.

IAN GUST: I think it’s ill-informed. It shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how the whole WHO system and the public health program to try and control or prevent influenza each year works.

The system as designed is an extraordinarily democratic. WHO set up a network of laboratories around the world to collect influenza strains and try and anticipate changes that might lead to outbreaks in different countries around the world.

It predicts what strains are likely to be important. It provides reference viruses to all vaccine manufacturers whether they are in the private sector or the public sector at exactly the same time. So every manufacturer is in a position to incorporate the new strains in their vaccine.

It doesn’t benefit in any way.

BARBARA MILLER: In her book, Siti Fadilah Supari also says she’s worried that the United States could potentially use virus samples to develop biological weapons.
Dr Supari told the ABC she only wanted to raise the issue, not make a direct accusation. But whatever her intention in writing the book, its content suggests a breakthrough in the current stand-off on virus sample sharing is unlikely.

And with the number of bird flu victims in Indonesia this year already standing at 11, that’s a serious concern. [Transkrip asli]
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