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.