Ministry seeks travel ban for SARS sufferers

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.