Govt to check passengers from India
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Justice Oetojo Oesman said yesterday that the government will check plane passengers from India with special treatments following the spread of pneumonic plague in the South Asian country.
"This check is a part of our standard immigration policy to block any disease carrier," Oetojo said, adding that the government will soon announce its decision concerning the arrival of people and cargo from India.
Earlier reports said that according to an official account, 50 Indians were killed during the catastrophe, with all but two of the deaths in or near the city of Surat where the outbreak erupted last month.
A number of countries as far as Yemen, Russia and Thailand have taken steps to guard against the sickness by advising against travel to India, dropping direct flights and screening or even barring travelers and cargo from India.
According to the head of the Jakarta Health Office, Soeharto Wirjowidagdo, the pneumonic plague, popularly known as black death in Europe or sampar in Bahasa Indonesia, is caused by plague bacillus (in Latin yersiana pestis) and is carried by rat fleas.
An infected person, he said last week, after being bitten by a carrier rodent could spread the bacillus to others through his or her droplets.
The wild rodents inhabit Latin America, Africa, Mid and South East Asia, including Indonesia.
Meanwhile, Kartono Mohamad, the chairman of the Indonesian Medical Association, called on the government yesterday to take firm measures over the lethal plague, saying that the influx of cargo from India should also be examined if not temporarily stopped.
Kartono said that some countries like Singapore, Malaysia and Pakistan, had not only halted the influx of passengers but also cargo from India.
Denial
Soeharto Wirjowidagdo and Suheni Soedjatmiko, the spokeswoman for the Ministry of Health, denied a report in The Jakarta Post on Saturday stating that pneumonic plague (in Latin bubonic pneumonic) had been reported in the capital.
Soeharto did not say in his interview with the Post that the plague, which was reported to be in Jakarta, had any connection with the one which is now spreading in India.
Suheni said that what had been reported here were merely cases of acute respiratory infections which are not caused by yersiana pestis.
"These diseases have similar symptoms with the pneumonic plague but different causes requiring different medical treatments," she said.
"It's totally different from the pneumonic plague spreading in India," she added.
Suheni was also quoted by Antara news agency as saying yesterday that pneumonic plague in Indonesia was first reported in Tanjung Perak seaport, East Java, during the Dutch colonial period in 1910.
The last case of sampar took place in Pasuruan, East Java, killing 20 of 24 infected people in 1986. (09)