Original article for Indonesian readers. Scroll down for english version.
Tidak perlu takut terhadap flu babi. Dari Departemen Komunikasi dan Informasi.
Sementara bagi pendatang yang masuk ke Indonesia melalui bandara telah disiagakan Thermo Scanner yang akan mendeteksi suhu tubuh seseorang apakah ia sedang menderita flu atau tidak.
Departemen Kesehatan juga akan mensuplai Health Alert Card kepada perusahaan penerbangan, juga kepada pelabuhan akan dibagikan dan harus diisi oleh pendatang mengenai kondisi kesehatannya apakah pendatang tersebut sedang mengalami flu atau tidak.
Selain itu, Depkes juga telah menyiapkan stok obat taminflu yang menurut Menkes dapat juga dipakai untuk mengobati H1N1 (flu babi).
Di tempat yang sama, Direktur Pengendalian Penyakit Bersumber Binatang (PPBB) Depkes, Rita Kusriastuti, mengatakan untuk Thermo Scanner telah disiagakan di 10 bandara, diantaranya Ngurah Rai Bali, Makassar, Surabaya, Kalimantan Selatan, Jakarta, Batam, juga Medan.
Untuk obat, telah disiapkan stok 3 juta obat taminflu. Selain itu 100 RS rujukan juga telah dilatih kembali guna mengantisipasi penyakit ini, dokter di sejumlah RS juga diminta lebih teliti memeriksa kondisi pasien, kata Rita. (T. Jul/toeb)
English version
Indonesia Health Minister statement about pig flu.
Health Minister, Siti Fadilah Supari announced public not to be afraid but keep aware to any possibility of pig flu emerging in Indonesia.
Fatality rate of bird flu (H5N1) appears to be higher – about 80-90 percent – compare to pig flu (H1N1) which about 6.4 percent. However, public asked to be aware since this virus has been confirmed to be transmissible among human.
H1N1 virus is only survivable in sub tropic area – in particular during autumn and winter – such as North America. Indonesia is a tropical country so that the possibility for the virus to survive is relatively low, said Health Minister in press conference, Ministry of Public Welfare Coordination (Menkokesra) office, Jakarta, Monday (27/4).
Pig/Swine flu or H1N1 cannot survive in warm temperate area such as Indonesia. But citizen are required to maintain self hygiene.
For preparedness of any possibility of this virus to emerge in Indonesia, Ministry of Health has ordered related parties to terminate import of pork. Moreover, government will do surveillance to numbers of pig farms in Indonesia, in total 9 millions pig population.
Meanwhile, airports in Indonesia have been equipped with Thermo Scanner or body temperature detector for new entrants.
Ministry of health also supplies Health Alert Card to airways companies and sea harbor, about the health/flu status, which required to be filled by new entrants.
Furthermore, Ministry of Health has prepared Tamiflu stock for H1N1 treatment.
In the same event, Director of Animal Derived Disease Control (PPBB) Ministry of Health, Rita Kusriastuti said, Thermo Scanner has been set up in 10 airports, i.e. Ngurah Rai Bali, Makassar, Surabaya, South Kalimantan, Jakarta, Batam and Medan.
Three millions Tamiflu for therapeutics have been prepared, and 100 reference hospitals will also be re-trained to anticipate the occurrence of the disease. Doctors in numbers of hospitals are also ordered to be more considerate in examining patients, said Rita.
Source: Indonesia Communication and Information Ministry. Departemen Komunikasi dan Informasi. http://www.depkominfo.go.id/2009/04/27/masyarakat-diminta-waspadai-flu-babi/
===AvianInfluenzaIndonesia===
May 8, 2009 at 12:17 pm
“H1N1 virus is only survivable in sub tropic area – in particular during autumn and winter – such as North America. Indonesia is a tropical country so that the possibility for the virus to survive is relatively low, said Health Minister in press conference, Ministry of Public Welfare Coordination (Menkokesra) office, Jakarta, Monday (27/4).”
Please fire this ignoramus of a “health minister” as soon as possible as she knows nothing about influenza.
Influenza is spread from person-to-person and Indonesia’s island of Java is the most densely populated island in the world. It won’t take much for 1 person to cough or sneeze and infect dozens of people since people live so near to one another.
It is true that in the coldest months, the flu can spread more easily, but this is only because the cold weather forces people to stay indoors to keep warm, and the virus spreads much more efficiently in an indoor environment due to the lack of fresh air and crowded conditions. One person coughing or sneezing there could infect a large number of people and the virus can linger in the air for HOURS in an indoor environment (e.g. office, shopping mall, airport, hospital).
In warm weather, people tend to remain outdoors, so transmission of the virus is more difficult as the virus can’t linger in the air for long before it is blown away by the rapidly moving air currents and diluted such that it wouldn’t infect anyone, except those in close contact with the sick person.
It is NOT the weather, but the people’s reaction to the weather (i.e. staying indoors, which happens during Indonesia’s rainy season/musim hujan) that enhances the transmission of the virus.
Countries with a low population density will see a slower spread of A/H1N1 than countries with a high population density.
Jakarta is prime ground for an epidemic of swine flu.