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.