"The current situation in Victoria, Australia is the first case of H5N1 in Australia. It occurred in a child who had just returned from India. It is suspected that the child had contact with infected animals or their products," said Dicky as quoted from Liputan6.com."

The initial symptoms experienced by the child include fever and flu-like symptoms. Dicky emphasized that this case is very important to be observed by Indonesia, considering that this country is also vulnerable to bird flu. "And Indonesia is a country that reported one suspected case of bird flu transmission between humans although this is very rare in the literature," added Dicky.

According to Dicky, the bird flu cases in Australia should serve as a warning for Indonesia. Considering that Australia is a neighboring country, this is highly relevant. "The important lesson is, what is currently happening in Australia, which is our neighbor, is an alarm that Indonesia must improve its surveillance," Dicky added.

Dicky added that various developed countries, including Australia, are making efforts to increase influenza vaccination. Although influenza vaccination does not directly prevent bird flu, this vaccine has important benefits in preventing cross-infection. "Cross-infection can increase the avian influenza virus's ability to infect humans and accelerate human-to-human transmission. Therefore, increasing influenza vaccination coverage is very important," Dicky added.