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Govt plays down measles outbreak

The Health Ministry says it has responded to a travel warning issued by the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for Americans traveling to Indonesia on a possible measles outbreak

Nadya Natahadibrata (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Thu, December 12, 2013

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Govt plays down measles outbreak

T

he Health Ministry says it has responded to a travel warning issued by the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for Americans traveling to Indonesia on a possible measles outbreak.

Tjandra Yoga Aditama, the Health Ministry'€™s director general for disease control and environmental health, said that his ministry had cooperated with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the CDC to monitor the spread of measles in the country.

Tjandra said that a surveillance team had monitored the disease since the travel notice was issued on Dec. 9.

'€œI have asked the CDC to provide us with the identity and travel history of the American citizen who reportedly contracted measles after traveling to Indonesia, as we will run an epidemiological study,'€
Tjandra said on Wednesday.

The CDC has urged travelers to '€œpractice usual precautions'€ after a US traveler returned from Indonesia in August with measles and went on spread the disease in a Texas community.

Data from the federal health agency shows that health authorities in the US had found 23 measles cases between January and August 2013, with 50 percent of the cases originating from Europe, while the rest were from Asia Pacific and Africa.

The warning came after Australian health officials in mid-November also advised those traveling to Indonesia to be fully vaccinated against measles.

Since October 2013, there have been 27 reported cases of measles in Australia, including 11 secondary cases associated with travel to Indonesia, more specifically to Bali.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has also reported more than 6,300 confirmed cases of measles in Indonesia from Jan. 1 until Nov. 11.

In spite of the report, the ministry appeared to play down the problem.

Tjandra said that the report of a measles outbreak in Bali could have been exaggerated.

'€œBased on the investigations conducted by our surveillance team in several community health centers [Puskesmas] in Bali, near the place where the tourists stayed, we found no KLB [extraordinary situation],'€ Tjandra said.

He added that the Puskesmas data showed no measles outbreaks recorded throughout September or October 2013.

'€œThe investigation result also shows that the Australian tourists had no contact with people that had contracted measles during their stay in Bali,'€ he said.

Although no cases of measles were found in the area, Tjandra said that local authorities had taken precautionary measures.

'€œHowever, our team will continue the surveillance program and I have also contacted the head of Bali'€™s health agency to take precautionary measures and report to the ministry should there be anything unusual in the area,'€ he continued.

Health Ministry data shows that almost 100 percent of children across the archipelago have received the measles vaccination up to 2013.

The data also shows that the number of deaths caused by measles has dropped by 87 percent, from 10,300 cases in 2000 to less than 2,000 in 2012.

Contacted separately, Airlangga University laboratory head Chairul Anwar Nidom said that measles remained a dangerous disease as the virus could stay within the infected person'€™s body for years.

'€œPeople who are infected with measles have the potential to become a carrier and might continually be a source of infection for other people,'€ Nidom told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

'€œEven if the person contracted the virus during their childhood, traces of the virus can still be detected when they are older,'€ he said.

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