Via the Jakarta Post, a very interesting profile of a Balinese whistleblower: Ngurah Mahardika: Breaking the bird flu taboo. Excerpt:
Earlier this year, while officials were in denial and avoided publicly speaking about the possible outbreak of bird flu in Bali -- fearing too much publicity could put the island's tourism industry at risk -- virologist from Denpasar-based Udayana University Ngurah Mahardika was the lone voice brave enough to be blunt about it.
After conducting extensive research, funded by the Agriculture Ministry from 2005 to 2006, he forewarned the island-province of possible human deaths, after discovering human viruses of the H5N1 strain present in Bali. In his research he came across the daunting discovery that the virus in Bali had crossed over to mammals, such as pigs, dogs and cats.
He became somewhat unpopular on the island, which at the time had just begun to recover from the aftermath of the terrorist bombings of 2002 and 2005.
Bali's government officials and politicians not only dismissed Mahardika's findings, but also criticized the validity of his research.
Despite his skeptics' doubts, and claims that his lab did not comply with bio-security standards, Mahardika was confident with his findings.
Some six months after issuing his warning, a bird flu outbreak in poultry spread across the island -- from Bali's southern Jembrana regency, to west Klungkung regency and the capital city, Denpasar.
Bali's first human victim of the bird flu virus died on Aug. 12, with a second death on Aug. 21, increasing the nation's death toll to 83 out of 105 cases -- the highest fatality rate from H5N1 in humans in the world.
"There was political apathy," he said. "This is the social cost of our ignorance".
