Govt warned not to underestimate SARS outbreak

Govt warned not to underestimate SARS outbreak

Dewi Santoso, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government is underestimating the possibility of a Severe
Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak, a health organization
said on Monday.

Kartono Mohamad of the Indonesia Health Coalition said the
government lacked anticipatory measures like other Asian
countries had taken in dealing with the threat of the virus.

"It seems that instead of giving out warnings in airports,
seaports and customs areas, the government is just taking a wait-
and-see stance despite the potential of the threat," Kartono
said.

A confirmed case of SARS in the southern city of Guangzhou,
China was reported on Dec. 28, 2003. A 32-year-old man checked
into a hospital on Dec. 20 with a headache and fever and was on
Monday declared the first case of SARS since July 2003.

"It's true that the World Health Organization (WHO) has
confirmed that the virus is different from that previously
recorded in November 2002. But it has discovered that the new
virus is another kind of coronavirus which is also contagious.

"Thus, instead of just waiting for more news from the WHO, the
government should start giving out warnings and information on
SARS, without exaggerating of course," said Kartono.

He asserted that it did not matter whether or not the virus
was the same strain as last year's SARS, because they both could
be equally contagious and dangerous.

"The more dangerous thing is that if the virus is a mutant
strain, then the effect could be more hazardous," he told The
Jakarta Post.

The Ministry of Health's Director of Surveillance,
Epidemiology, Immunization and Health Indriyono, however, argued
that health officials had since July 2003 been monitoring the
development of SARS.

"We have very close contacts with health officials in
Singapore, Taiwan and China on monitoring the development of the
case so that should the case emerge, our country will be well-
prepared," said Indriyono.

He said thus far the government had prepared 45 health offices
at airports and seaports across the country and appointed 38
hospitals, including Suliyanti Saroso Hospital for Infectious
Diseases in Sunter, North Jakarta, in anticipation of any such
outbreak.

"Let's pray and hope that it won't occur in our country," he
said, adding that if the case indeed hit the country, health
masks would be given to health workers.

The world's first case of SARS was recorded in November 2002
in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong, China. Within months,
other Asian countries such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore
also reported many cases of SARS, which prompted WHO to crack
down hard on the flu-like ailment worldwide.

In Indonesia, there were a few suspected cases of SARS, but no
confirmed SARS cases were officially recorded. There was one
Indonesian, who came back from Taiwan after working there as a
house maid, suspected of having symptoms of SARS, but later was
declared free of SARS.