Those suspected of SARS find discrimination
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A young woman recently found herself stranded when state-owned PT Pelni refused to allow her on board passenger ship KM Sinabung as she attempted to leave Batam island for her home in Cirebon, West Java.
The women had recently been isolated at Batam General Hospital because it was suspected that she had Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Her name was never made public.
She was eventually cleared by the hospital and discharged, but that apparently did not satisfy Pelni.
Johny Pandigerot, the head of the Pelni office at the Sekupang Port in Batam, said his company's policy was not to allow those suspected of being infected with SARS on board its ships.
"We have no special rooms for passengers with infectious diseases like SARS. We require an official letter from the local health authorities if such a passenger wants to board our ship," he said.
A member of the local social affairs office in Batam, Jamaris, expressed his disappointment with Pelni's decision not to allow the woman to board the ship.
"We purchased a ticket for her and she was allowed to go home because she had been declared free of SARS. So why did Pelni reject her?" he asked.
The families of people suspected of being infected with SARS have also had a difficult time dealing with the disease and its consequences.
"We just believed what the doctors said. The doctors said our daughter had to be quarantined so I let my daughter be quarantined. We just want her to recover soon," said a father whose daughter was isolated at the Karyadi Hospital in Semarang, Central Java, after she displayed the symptoms of SARS.
Authorities and hospitals have not released the identities of patients suspected of having SARS to try and prevent discrimination.
The man's daughter worked as a domestic helper in Hong Kong for 18 months. She was taken to the hospital after she came down with a fever and had respiratory problems soon after she returned to Kendal, Central Java, last week.
The Karyadi General Hospital has cleared her of SARS infection, but she has been kept in the hospital for treatment for pneumonia.
The government has declared SARS to be a national threat. The disease has claimed victims in China, Hong Kong and Singapore, and doctors still have not found a cure for it.
Human rights activist Daniel Pandjaitan of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation has said suspected SARS sufferers and their families must be informed of the procedures they must go through if they are hospitalized.