Visitors to the Presidential Palace in Jakarta now have to undergo a thermoscan check before entering the complex, as Indonesia faces an increasing rate of H1N1 flu infections.

Health Ministry officers equipped with thermoscanners have also been placed at President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s private residence in Cikeas, south of Jakarta, since Wednesday to scan visitors who might be carrying the virus.

Sahat, a doctor conducting the checks at the palace, said the thermoscan inspection would be applied at the President’s two residences for the next six months.

“We’re trying to prevent the H1N1 flu pandemic from spreading further. As well as fulfilling the palace’s request, we are also doing this to protect the state,” he said.

The thermoscanners, which are digital thermometers, are held a few inches in front of a visitor’s forehead before they pass through a metal detector.

Visitors, including top government officials, presidential staff and journalists, are all subject to the body heat scanning checks.

If found to have a body temperature of 38 degrees Celcius or above, they will be referred to the H1N1 reference hospital, Sulianti Saroso Hospital in North Jakarta, and will undergo laboratory tests.

“So far no one has been detected of carrying H1N1 flu,” Sahat told journalists.

The Palace provided no details about why it had initiated the thermoscanning checks.

However, it is likely there is fear the virus will spread to the President’s inner circle, as five family members of the Coordinating Minister for People’s Welfare Aburizal Bakrie, have tested positive to
the virus.

“My son, Anin [Anindya Bakrie], his wife and the rest of the family fell ill. They caught the flu while they were in the United States.

"However, they have recovered now after receiving treatment and vaccinations,” Aburizal was quoted as saying by Antara.

Yudhoyono has been suffering from the flu since late last week, but it is unlikely he has contracted the H1N1 strain.

He looked fresh and healthy on Thursday as he led a coordination meeting with a number of Cabinet ministers, top security officials and the country’s 33 governors, although he said he had not yet fully recovered.

As of Thursday, or just over a month after the first H1N1 infection was found in Indonesia, the country has recorded a total of 479 cases, one of which was fatal.

The Health Ministry’s official report said infection cases had been found in 15 out of the country’s 33 provinces, including Riau Islands, Bali and all six provinces in Java.

North Sumatra, South Sumatra, Jambi, South Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, South Sulawesi and North Sulawesi have all reported cases of the H1N1 flu strain.

The H1N1 flu has also infected dozens of students in a few Islamic boarding schools in East Java, prompting the country’s largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) to urge the government to better inform the public about the flu.

“The government must inform the public more intensively about the H1N1 flu so that they understand what it is, the fatal risk of the disease, and how to tackle it,” said Hasan Mutawakkil Alallah, head of NU’s East Java branch.

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