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oldiers enforcing curfews in West Africa seem to spring out of old films and novels about intimidated populations and citizens being stigmatized as suspected carriers of lethal, fast spreading diseases.

Nowadays governments are much more open than their stereotypes and, instead, encourage public awareness to minimize epidemics. Also, governments are constantly reminded how pointless it is to hide things in a wired world.

Therefore, transparency is among the basic policies we expect of the government in anticipating the latest threat to public health, the Ebola virus.

The central and regional governments have had experience facing diseases like the avian flu and the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), among recent examples.

Health Minister Nafsiah Mboi has declared that at least 100 hospitals across the country are ready to handle Ebola patients, but this is not exactly comforting, given the reports of doctors and nurses dying after handling patients and given the World Health Organization'€™s (WHO) data that nearly 58 percent of more than 1,000 patients died in Liberia alone.

That West Africa is far away from Indonesia is not comforting, either '€” not only because of reports of the virus reaching neighboring Vietnam (although the two patients have been released from hospital), but also because we are nearing the haj season in which more than 200,000 Indonesian pilgrims will leave for Mecca starting in early September.

Furthermore, the concern here lies in a lack of confidence emerging from the recent experience with MERS.

Given the enthusiasm among Muslims to go on the mandatory haj, or the noncompulsory and less costly minor pilgrimage, and given the reasoning that resources in both Saudi Arabia and at home were sufficient to handle the MERS, the government refrained from issuing a travel ban despite strong recommendations to temporarily halt trips to the Middle East.

Health checks have been increased at all entry points on anyone showing a high fever, which is among the symptoms experienced by those affected by the virus, but health checks should also be increased on candidate pilgrims. The chance of catching the virus is much greater for unfit bodies. However, the scrutiny of the physical well-being of aspiring pilgrims before they depart is not necessarily strict enough and neither are the follow-up health checks at the airport.

Similarly, in the experience with the avian flu we did not see thoroughly consistent measures of prevention against the virus. Besides transparency, firm policies and strict implementations are needed on the part of the central and local governments in preventing an Ebola epidemic.

The death of health workers who contract Ebola while caring for patients must also be prevented. Strict monitoring of the handling of suspected carriers and patients and dealing with them in non-intimidating ways (while protecting their privacy) are also vital measures for preventing the potential patients from avoiding the doctors and nurses who could save their lives.