Ministry of Health urges public to maintain cleanliness to prevent hantavirus transmission

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) has urged the public to continue maintaining cleanliness and environmental health to prevent the transmission of hantavirus, whose infection source is rodents.

“In addition to environmental cleanliness, we must be fully aware of the source of hantavirus transmission, whose infection comes from rodents. This means rodents should not be allowed to roam around and so on; it is closely related to environmental cleanliness,” said Acting Director General of Disease Control and Prevention at Kemenkes, Andi Saguni, during a press conference attended online in Jakarta on Monday.

He explained that although the strain of the virus infecting the MV Hondius cruise ship, which caused casualties, differs from that found in Indonesia, the public must remain alert to the dangers of virus transmission, particularly in flood-affected areas.

He also reminded the public not to play around during floods, as there are many risks of transmitted diseases, including hantavirus and leptospirosis from rodents.

“So, when floods occur, do not treat it as playing in a giant swimming pool, because it actually poses a risk for several infectious diseases, one of which is hantavirus,” he stated.

Nevertheless, Indonesia has not reported any cases of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS) to date and has only recorded limited infections of Hantavirus type Haemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome (HFRS) since 1991.

Kemenkes also stated that there have been no cases of transmission from rodents to humans in Indonesia so far.