Measures against SARS still lax at ports

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Preventative measures at international airports and seaports in Indonesia to stop the spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) still appear to be deficient.

On Batam island, just a 30-minute boatride from SARS-affected Singapore, no health agency officials were monitoring the movement of passengers from Singapore at Teluk Sinimba, Batu Ampar, Sekupang or Nongsa Point Seaports, an official said on Sunday.

"I did not see any health officials monitoring passengers from Singapore, even though SARS is a hot topic here," said Tatang, an immigration official.

Denying the report, Batam Health Agency chief Puardi Djarius said his agency had sent personnel to all international seaports on the island to deal with the SARS threat.

The Batam authorities, which had previously closed schools from April 2 to April 6, have extended the school closure to April 12.

At Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, one of the 21 doctors on duty said he was unsure whether the killer virus had entered the country or not, given the lax measures being taken against it.

"Frankly speaking, we don't have enough of the special masks here. You can see some of the airport officials not wearing them.

"If we want to prevent the virus from spreading, all officials and everybody here must wear the special masks and change them twice a day. This is not happening at the moment," he told The Jakarta Post.

Sri Rubiyanti, an Indonesian worker returning from Hong Kong, said the screening here was less tight than it was in Hong Kong.

"In Hong Kong, those who refuse to wear masks will be fined, but when we arrived here, there were passengers who took off their masks but nothing happened to them," she told the Post.

The government declared SARS a national epidemic threat three weeks after WHO announced a worldwide alert on March 15.

In the arrivals lounge of Soekarno-Hatta Airport, health officials were seen distributing health alert cards to passengers arriving from SARS-affected countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam and China, 50 meters in front of immigration control.

Passengers with coughs or flu-like symptoms, or who have a temperature of over 38 Celcius, are supposed to be sent to the Sulianto Saroso Infectious Diseases Hospital (RSPI) in Sunter, North Jakarta.

The airport authorities reported that five flights into Soekarno-Hatta Airport were canceled on Sunday afternoon.

At Tanjung Priok Port, the health clinic claimed it had checked 2,000 passengers and the crew members of 87 ships from Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Vietnam, Taiwan and Canada, but found no one suffering from SARS.

Meanwhile, Sardikin Giriputro, head of SARS treatment at the RSPI Sulianti Saroso, said on Sunday that a suspected new case of SARS had been brought to the hospital on Saturday.

"But another patient who had been suspected of having SARS was only suffering from an ordinary flu. So this patient has been sent home," said Sardikin.

To date, there have been nine suspected SARS cases in the country. Four patients are receiving treatment in the RSPI, one patient in Semarang hospital, one in Batam hospital, while one patient has died in Jakarta. Two other suspected SARS patients have been released from the RSPI Sulianti Saroso after they got the all-clear.

At Polonia airport in Medan, many officials as well as passengers arriving from Singapore were wearing masks.

The airport authorities have reported a decline in the number of passengers arriving from Singapore to around 30, down from the normal 80.

In Bali, the Ngurah Rai Airport authorities plan to distribute health alert cards to passengers while still on the plane.

"So when they arrive here, we'll only check their condition," said IGM Dhordy, the head of the airport authority.

Meanwhile, Singapore Airlines has notified the Ngurah Rai Airport Immigration Office that it is reducing the number of its flight from Singapore to Denpasar from 28 to 21 amid the worldwide SARS epidemic, according to the head of the Ngurah Rai Immigration Office, Gede Widiartha.