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Article: Indonesia Stretched to the Limit In Battle Against Two Diseases; Campaign to End Polio Complicated by Rise of Bird Flu
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- November 6, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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When the first human case of bird flu was discovered on
Indonesia's Sumatra island this fall, provincial officials raced to
investigate. But local health officers were unavailable to help them
because they were busy vaccinating thousands of young children
against a polio outbreak.
Within the last six months, Indonesia has moved to the front lines
of two global health crises, seeking to curb the spread of both bird
flu and polio before they spill across the border.
"It has stretched resources and capacity to the limit," said
Thomas Moran of the World Health Organization's office in Jakarta,
the Indonesian capital.
Faced with the fastest growth of new polio cases on Earth,
Indonesia launched a ...