Indonesia Issues Travel Warning for Ebola-Infected Countries

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Health Ministry has issued a travel warning for countries where Ebola is known to be endemic to - namely Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone. The step was taken after two Indonesians were suspected to have caught the deadly hemorrhagic virus after returning from work in Liberia, although further testing has revealed that both did not get sick from Ebola.

Health Minister Nila Djuwita Moeloek said that preventive measures should be taken as early as possible. "Now that the travel warning is in place, people would need to think twice before traveling to those regions," she said.

The Health Ministry has set up numerous warnings at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Banten, as a part of its' effort to prevent the disease from spreading on Indonesian soil. The Ministry also plans to train medical staffers in rural areas to increase their preparedness to deal with Ebola.

The Secretary General of the National Zoonosis Commission, Emil Agustianto, has welcomed the travel warnings, saying that travel warnings are one of the most effective way to prevent the trans-boundary transmission of the virus.

That said, Emil noted that such the current warning system would only affect air travellers. "We need to take into account those passengers who routinely travel by sea and/or land," he said. Emil also called on the government to further train medical staffers in the country to anticipate the disease - especially those who are stationed near Indonesia's borders.

Indeed, border areas have often been a subject of neglect by the Health Ministry, who tends to orient their focus on airports and major cities across Indonesia, despite the fact that infectious diseases such as Ebola are often transmitted through areas which share a physical border with another region and/or countries, said Emil.

Emil also said that the public needs to be properly socialised to the dangers of Ebola, in order to allow for the more effective handling of the disease. "We cannot just depend on medical staffers," he said.

The Director of Avian Influenza-Zoonosis Research Centre (AIRC), Chairul Anwar Nidom, said that the travel warnings must be uniformly enforced across all state institutions - including the police and military. "These institutions often deploy their officials to Africa for humanitarian missions," said Nidom, who worries that the lack of awareness among security personnels may make them more vulnerable to the virus.

The government has called on the Ebola issue to be discussed at the 25th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Myanmar. Indonesia's Permanent Representative to ASEAN, Rahmat Pramono, said that Ebola has 'evolved' into an international issue, and as such, Indonesia cannot unilaterally act in the case of an outbreak. Pramono stated that support from ASEAN members will be invaluable in dealing with a possible outbreak scenario.

TRI SUSANTO SETIAWAN | AMOS SIMANUNGKALIT