THIS scourge is called bird flu. In less than a week in the month of January, four people died because of it. Scores of other patients in Central and West Java and in Jakarta are under serious medical treatment for suspected bird flu.

Muhammad Arif, 18 years old, for example, has been lying weak in the Persahabatan Hospitals isolation room for more than a week. His white corpuscles and thrombosis levels are decreasing. An X-ray photo shows an infl