Then there were headaches before the real pandemic took place

Sun, 05/24/2009 10:38 AM  |  Lifestyle

A slew of online messaging tools, walkie-talkies, telephones and facsimile machines are being used to facilitate communication between regional command centers when cases of H1N1-A influenza virus begin to spread across the country.

Updates on increased suspected and confirmed cases are overwhelming, and economic and social ramifications begin to set in. Here and there, reports of fuel shortages are coming in, people are rushing to markets to stock up on food, seaports as well as airports are shutting down and hungry and confused residents are taking to the streets to protest about all the uncertainty.

Worry not, as those are just scenarios given to participants of last week's pandemic simulation and workshop that took place in Sanur.

One of rooms at Sanur Paradise Plaza in Bali was set up as the Jakarta-based command center where officials from across the board sat together and shared information.

Iqbal - acting as the center commander - initially took calls updating him on the increasing number of suspected and confirmed cases of H1N1 infections across the country, but later in the day, he became so overwhelmed he started palming off the task to other people in the room.

First the virus spread to the Riau Islands, then Semarang, Yogyakarta, and then to most cities.

"In real life, I don't think I could handle such a huge task," he said after "performing his duty".

Iqbal's duty included instructing the command's secretary to write a letter and send it to all related agencies, asking for either backup or logistic supplies, and deciding which regions would receive antiviral medication.

The administrative clutters were beyond imagination because emails and faxes sometimes did not go through. One agency did not want to cooperate simply because its officials refused to take "orders" from another agency.

"Our internet connection was down a couple times so our reports could not go through and we could not receive any instructions from Jakarta," the facilitator for the Eastern Indonesia group said about the flawed IT.

But what would happen if officials in one of the centers became infected and had to be taken away and isolated? The scenario unfolded in one of the simulations. One regional command center had to be closed because the virus had infected two of its members.

Indonesia, the country hardest hit by avian influenza, may avert being the potential epicenter of a much-feared global pandemic, which started when Mexico reported cases of H1N1-A influenza that rapidly spread to other continents.

But with a population of more than 220 million, where many citizens still live close to their cattle and practice backyard farming, Indonesia has made the world question whether it is capable of at least containing the spread of the virus which experts fear has the potential to become a pandemic.

While the virus H5N1 is still not transmissible from person to person, scientists have feared once it happens, the world will not be able to contain its spread unless preparedness in both medical and non-medical sectors is in place.

"There have been changes in the virus *H5N1* but I can't say if it's more virulent or not, as it will need further study. But let's not take this swine flu lightly, as a pandemic is not only about deaths. When the flu gets a group of people in their prime productive ages, the economic and social order is likely to collapse, mass hysteria will erupt and we might not be ready by the time it happens," said Udayana University's virologist I Gusti Ngurah Mahardhika.

-Emmy Fitri

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