SARS declared a national epidemic threat
SARS declared a national epidemic threat
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
At least five alleged cases of the potentially fatal disease
known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) have been
reported in Indonesia, prompting the government to declare SARS a
national epidemic threat.
In a bid to prevent SARS from spreading further around the
country, Minister of Health Achmad Sujudi is expected to issue a
ministerial decree on Thursday to implement Law No. 4/1984 on
epidemic diseases.
Speaking at a press conference after a ministerial
coordination meeting at the office of the coordinating minister
for people's welfare, Sujudi said on Tuesday that the government
had appointed certain hospitals as SARS clinics.
In Jakarta those hospitals are the Infectious Disease Hospital
(RSPI) in Sunter, North Jakarta and Persahabatan Hospital in
Rawamangun, East Jakarta.
In other provinces, regional administration-owned hospitals
and educational hospitals -- not private hospitals -- were
appointed as SARS clinics.
Sujudi disclosed on Tuesday that the government had recorded
three alleged SARS cases.
On Wednesday, however, Director General of Communicable
Diseases Eradication and Environment Health Umar Fahmi Achmadi
said that another two alleged SARS cases were found in Semarang,
Central Java, and in Jakarta.
"All cases are alleged to be SARS. Three patients have been
isolated in hospitals, one died and one is isolated at home after
demanding to leave a hospital on Tuesday evening," he told the
Jakarta Post.
The government has three categories for those who have
symptoms similar to SARS: alleged, suspected or confirmed.
Alleged SARS cases are those who return from SARS-prone
countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam or China, and have
no known history of contact with a SARS patient, but suffer from
flu or flu-like symptoms.
A suspected SARS case means people have come into contact with
a SARS patient, but have no specific SARS symptoms.
The first alleged SARS case occurred to an Indonesian female
migrant worker who arrived in Batam, Riau, from Singapore earlier
this week with flu-like symptoms.
She was immediately taken by seaport health officials to
Otorita Batam Hospital for further diagnosis.
The second case is a woman who was recently visited by someone
from Singapore. Later, she was found ill and now is hospitalized
at RSPI.
The third hit a former migrant worker who later died of
multiple organ failure at the Jakarta Islamic Hospital (RSIJ) in
Cempaka Putih, Central Jakarta. The lung X-ray results, however,
showed no sign of any pneumonia.
The fourth struck an ill migrant worker that was brought in to
RSPI but she demanded to leave the hospital and returned home to
Subang, West Java, according to RSPI.
The last alleged case befell a migrant worker returning from
Hong Kong, who was coughing, with high fever and brought to
Karyadi Hospital in Semarang on Tuesday night.
"She is now quarantined under serious observation," Karyadi
Hospital spokesman Jayadi.
Meanwhile, in Batam, the Batam authorities have given all
schools in the territory a four-day vacation starting Thursday to
try to prevent an outbreak of SARS.
Umar went on to say that the government had asked the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of Atlanta, in the
United States to conduct medical tests on the five alleged SARS
cases.
He also said that his office received a letter from Indonesian
Embassy in Hong Kong on Tuesday reporting an Indonesian migrant
worker who had positively contracted SARS and was now
hospitalized at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in the country where
530 people were infected and 13 have died as of March 31.
To give information on SARS, the government has a hotline at
RSPI for the public: 62-21-6506568. For more information one can
visit the World Health Organization website at www.who.int or the
CDC website at www.cdc.gov.