Ministry seeks travel ban for SARS sufferers

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Ministry of Health has asked the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights to bar suspected sufferers of SARS who have been discharged from the hospital from leaving the country. This comes after a suspected SARS patient fled to Hong Kong.

Umar Fahmi Achmadi, director general for communicable diseases and environmental health at the health ministry, said on Monday such a measure would help prevent the community transmission of SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Disease.

"We will propose it at an interministerial meeting on Tuesday and it depends on the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights to approve the proposal," he told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of a meeting with a number of manpower companies that send migrant workers overseas.

"When a suspected SARS patient fled home isolation in Tangerang, Banten, to Hong Kong it taught us an important lesson we must not repeat," he said.

There are about 7,000 foreigners from SARS-affected countries such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan working in Indonesia, according to data from the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration.

One of these people was declared a probable SARS patient and was treated at the Sulianti Saroso Infectious Diseases Hospital in North Jakarta. He was discharged from the hospital last week and told to remain isolated at his home for 14 days, but instead he flew to Hong Kong.

The government has announced that there was no community transmission from the patient before or after he left hospital, but there are fears he may have infected several people on his way to Hong Kong.

As of Monday, there were three suspected SARS patients in the country and all of them were being treated at the Sulianti Saroso Infectious Diseases Hospital, according to the government.

Azimal, a member of a government team set up to investigate and contain SARS, said there was intensified coordination with immigration offices at air and seaports to help ensure no suspected SARS patients were allowed to leave the country until they had been declared free from the virus.

"That is what we can do now. We do not want any more instances of suspected SARS patients fleeing," he said.

The central government has also asked regional administrations to monitor 51 international entry and exit points for illegal migrant workers, who have the potential to spread SARS.

"We must monitor them although it will be quite difficult," Mardjono, director for the protection and empowerment of Indonesian migrant workers at the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration, said.

Mardjono said Nunukan in East Kalimantan and a number of ports in Riau were favored by illegal workers seeking to leave the country.

The government has halted the placement of Indonesian migrant workers in SARS-affected countries to prevent them from being infected with the virus.

Several Indonesian workers in Hong Kong have been infected with SARS and are being treated at hospitals there.

Umar said villages across the country were the most vulnerable to the spread of the disease because of the many migrant workers returning home from SARS-affected countries.

"So we hope manpower offices are cautious with migrant workers returning from SARS-affected areas. It is important for Indonesia not to have community transmission of SARS," he said.

If community transmission of SARS occurs in the country, the impact on tourism and the whole economy will be much worse, he said.