Lestari: Building Collective Awareness to Anticipate the Spread of Hantavirus
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Deputy Speaker of the MPR RI, Lestari Moerdijat, emphasised the need to build collective awareness to anticipate the spread of hantavirus in Indonesia.
In a statement in Jakarta on Friday, Lestari said that education and socialisation efforts regarding the threat of hantavirus need to be intensified, in line with the WHO’s recommendations.
“The government, through the Ministry of Health, has taken concrete steps to address the threat of hantavirus. However, public concerns regarding the threat of the virus in the country must be addressed collectively,” she said.
Lestari, who is also a member of Commission X of the DPR RI, believes that efforts to prevent the threat of hantavirus require a shared understanding of mitigation and the actions that need to be taken if exposed.
With this, she said, the potential threat of transmission can be addressed together.
The latest case of hantavirus has come under the spotlight after the World Health Organization (WHO) monitored an outbreak on a Dutch-flagged cruise ship, the MV Hondius, which sailed from Argentina.
The agency received reports of a hantavirus outbreak on the Hondius cruise ship on 2 May 2026. Seven people out of a total of 147 passengers and crew members were reported to be ill, three of whom died.
The WHO stated that the hantavirus victims were likely infected before boarding the cruise ship. Transmission between people on board the ship cannot be ruled out.
Before the outbreak on the cruise ship, hantavirus had already been found in Indonesia. The Ministry of Health confirmed that there were 23 positive cases from 2023.
However, the hantavirus cases found in Indonesia were mild and did not have high fatality rates, as found on the MV Hondius cruise ship.
“In Indonesia, 23 cases have been found since 2023, but all of them are mild hanta fever renal syndrome. The hantavirus found on the cruise ship has not yet entered Indonesia,” said Deputy Minister of Health Dante Saksono in Bandung on Tuesday (12 May).
To anticipate the transmission of hantavirus, the Ministry of Health has put 51 Health Quarantine Offices (BKK) on alert throughout Indonesia.
The Acting Director General of Disease Control at the Ministry of Health, Andi Saguni, explained that the main function of the 51 BKKs is to prevent and counter the threat of infectious diseases from abroad.
“When there is an increase in cases of diseases that have the potential to become an outbreak in other countries, the quarantine offices are tasked with monitoring and protecting against the disease entering Indonesia,” he said in Jakarta on Wednesday (13 May).