LAST week, Indonesia announced its 43rd human death from bird flu. It has now recorded more fatalities than any other nation, and in stark contrast to all other countries its death toll is climbing regularly. It looks as though things will get worse before they get better.
The Indonesian government claims to be committed to fighting the disease, caused by the H5N1 virus, but it does not seem to want to spend much of its own money doing so. After the international community pledged $900m in grants and slightly more in very soft loans to combat the spread of bird flu globally and to help nations prepare for a possible human flu pandemic[2], Indonesia put in a request for the full $900m—all of it in grants.
A national bird-flu commission was created in March to co-ordinate the country’s response but it has yet to be given a budget. Its chief, meanwhile, has just been given a second full-time job—heading efforts to rebuild the part of Java devastated by an earthquake in May.
Observers say that the available money is being mis-spent, with the focus on humans rather than on animals. The agriculture ministry, for example, is asking for less money for next year than it got this year. This is despite hundreds of thousands of hens dying every month, to say nothing of infected cats, quails, pigs and ducks. Farmers are being compensate at only 2,000 rupiah (21 cents) per bird, well below market price, thereby discouraging them from reporting outbreaks. The country’s veterinary surveillance services are inadequate. Pledges to vaccinate hundreds of millions of birds have not been met.
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation is starting to establish local disease-control centres to cope with the effects of a virulent mutation, should one occur, but reckons that only one-third of the country will be covered by year’s end. A bunch of international do-gooders[4] that is trying to plug some of the gaps is finding it hard to raise money.
【参考译文】
印尼上周宣布本国第43人死于禽流感。它的死亡纪录现已超过其它任何一个国家，并且与其它各国形成鲜明对比的是它的死亡人数还在不断攀升。现在看来，情况似乎不但未见好转，反而要愈发地糟糕。
虽然印尼政府声称有责任与这一由H5N1型病毒所致的疾病作斗争，但是它似乎并不希望自己为此投入很多资金。国际社会承诺捐款9亿美金，同时提供稍多数额的超低息贷款(译注：软贷款是指借款国可用本国软货币偿还的贷款。软货币即软通货，如纸币，区别于硬通货如黄金。此类贷款利息很低，主要用于帮助别人)，以阻止禽流感在全球扩散，并帮助各国做好可能发生的人流感大范围流行的防范准备，可是此后印尼竟然要求将全部9亿美金据为己有——而且全部以捐款的形式。
今年3月，印尼成立了全国禽流感委员会，旨在协调本国应急反应工作，不过其所需专项资金至今仍未到位。其间，该委员会主席正好又被安排了第二份专职工作——负责遭5月份地震毁坏的爪哇岛部分地区灾后重建工作。(译注：此段是指“虽然有了组织机构，但由于缺乏资金以及有关领导无法专心工作，禽流感防治工作不能取得进展。)
观察家说，现有资金使用不合理，投放重点应该是动物而不是人。例如，农业部为明年申请到的资金就比今年少。这等于是对每月死去的成百上千只鸡坐视不理，更不用说被感染的猫、鹌鹑、猪和鸭了。农民们每只家禽得到的补偿仅为2000卢比(21美分)，远低于市场价格，这使得他们不再积极报告发病情况。该国的兽医监督服务力度也不够，要为数千万只家禽注射疫苗的承诺到现在都没有兑现。
联合国粮农组织正在准备建立地方疾病控制中心，以应对可能发生的病毒突变所造成的后果。不过该组织估计到今年底印尼全国只有1/3的地区将建成此类中心。国际上众多想法天真的慈善家也在竭力填补这其中的一些缺口，却发现难以筹措所需资金。
