Indonesia, US to meet on bird flu crisis

  • 14/04/2008

  • Haveeru Daily (Maldives)

Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will meet the top US health official on Monday to discuss the bird flu crisis that has killed 107 people here, his spokesman said. US Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt is in Indonesia on a one-day visit, the president's spokesman said. "He will meet the president this afternoon to discuss cooperation in health, with the bird flu issue high on the agenda," said spokesman Dino Patti Djalal. Indonesia is the country worst hit by bird flu, with 107 people known to have died from the disease, 13 of them this year. Experts fear the virus, which is usually spread directly from birds to humans, could mutate into a form easily transmissible between people, sparking a deadly global pandemic. It is unclear whether Leavitt will meet Indonesia's Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari, who reportedly accused the United States of using Indonesian bird flu samples to produce biological weapons.