Health Issues in Indonesia

[Ara]

AIDS activists struggle with death, exhaustion

I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali

For a woman who just turned 22 this year, Nita Purnakusuma has seen a lot of death.

Working as a counselor for local HIV/AIDS NGOs, first with Yayasan Hatihati and presently with the newly established Yayasan Matahati, the dark-skinned girl is expected to assist, advise and comfort patients, mostly injecting drug users (IDUs) who have been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. Sometimes, her job also means accompanying the dying patients during their last days.

Nita has been a counselor since 1999 and during the course of her career, she has lost about 20 clients to the merciless epidemic.

"Losing a client, a friend I should say, is always a sad experience," she said.

Quite a sad experience, indeed, particularly when the person dying is more than just a friend. That was what happened to Nita when in late 2003 her boyfriend died after a long illness.

The tragedy nearly devastated her. Friends recalled how the loss transformed Nita from a tough activist into a broken-hearted girl in a single night.

"There is no word in this world to describe the feeling -- the abyss of sadness -- of watching his body being lowered into the earth and buried," she said.

Her eyes turn watery and she speaks in low tones about the event, an obvious sign of a wound that has not yet completely healed.

A few months after her boyfriend's death, on May 2004, another horrible event took place when the epidemic decimated virtually an entire family. The father, the mother, who was in her first trimester of pregnancy, and their three-year-old daughter all died of AIDS-related diseases in the same month. Only the eldest child, an eight-year-old girl, was spared by the epidemic. Both the father and mother were Nita's clients.

"We tried our best to save the three-year-old daughter. We did not have enough money back then so we contacted all our friends, asking them for money to pay for the girl's treatment and care," she said.

A mother in Jakarta, Hanny Basuli, canceled her daughter's birthday party and sent the money instead to the activists. The generous contribution sustained the little girl through her last days on earth.

"It was one of the worst moments of my life, watching the epidemic wiping out this family, the father first, then the daughter and finally the mother with the unborn baby. It truly gave me a new perspective on how merciless and arbitrary the epidemic and death can be," Nita told.

Such tragic deaths not only burden the activists with prolonged sadness, but in many cases also engulf them with a paralyzing sense of despair and guilt.

"I was really upset and disturbed because it ended like that. After all the things we had done, death had still managed to steal them from me. To some extent, it must be because I did not do enough to help and guide them," Nita said, at which point she fell into a long silence.

The other activists, particularly those who are also living with HIV/AIDS, these deaths hit them harder, haunting them with a foreboding sense of their own inescapable end.

"Every time a friend dies, I always feel that soon I will face a similar fate. I always try to distance myself from my clients who are hospitalized. First, because I do not have the heart to watch them suffer. Second, because I am afraid that one day I might end up like them," a former IDU and HIV-positive counselor said.

The 26-year-old man grew up on an Army base in Denpasar where injecting drugs was a common rite of passage and heroin was as available as a can of Coke.

Rio and his older brother, who are both former IDUs turned passionate HIV/AIDS activists, were infected through their risky habit of sharing needles. This is a mode of transmission that currently is responsible for almost 50 percent of all new infections in Bali.

Of Rio's 35 HIV/AIDS clients, 10 have died this year alone, mostly because of tuberculosis, the most common opportunistic infection suffered by people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in Bali.

Novian Haryawan of Yayasan Bali+ and Franky Richard Demitrius of Yayasan Bali Nurani said the deaths of several friends pushed them to work even harder.

"With anti-retroviral (ARV) treatments now available free of charge at the Sanglah Central Hospital and Yayasan Kerthi Praja, there is a better chance for PLWHA to maintain and improve the level of their health, thus prolonging their lives. Persuading as many PLWHA as possible to join ARV treatment is my top priority right now," Novian said.

Five of Novian's clients have died this year from tuberculosis and pneumonia.

The deaths of their patients is not the only thing that HIV/AIDS activists have to deal with. Physical and psychological exhaustion are common among the activists, particularly the counselors and outreach workers.

To a large extent, these problems are caused by the fact that one counselor must provide services to an average of 40 clients. For example, Novian Haryawan currently has 64 clients and Rae Noldy and Eddy Suryawan of Yayasan Hatihati have 65 and 40 clients, respectively.

"Bali has about 50 qualified counselor but the number of active counselors is less than half of that," Noldy said.

Because many of their clients are IDUs and sex workers, the counselors are often forced to work long, odd hours.

"My wife repeatedly yells at me for working long after the office has closed," Noldy said.

These problems can have severe health consequences, particularly for those activists who are also living with HIV/AIDS.

"I know a counselor whose CD4 count dropped significantly due to exhaustion," Noldy said.

A senior counselor, Christian Supriyadi of Bali+, deals with this by carefully managing his time.

"I tell my clients that I am available only during the office's work hours and not after that. I turn off my cellular phone at night. I have also appointed another counselor to act as my substitute when I am not available.

"I have to do this, otherwise I will die of exhaustion," he said.

He recalled how in his early years as a counselor he suffered physical and psychological burnout because he was handling every aspect of his clients' problems.

"Initially, we always thought we could attend to all their needs, from outreach and referral to accompanying them during their hospital stays.

"We get wiser by the year, though. Now we delegate some of the tasks to other activists, such as outreach workers and the buddies," Noldy said.

However, for several activists solutions such as time management and sharing the workload are not options.

"Most of our clients are also our friends, people who grew up together with us, so it is quite difficult, if not impossible, for us to turn them down when they come to us for help, even at the oddest hours. I tried those solutions once, tried to distance myself, but I just did not have the heart to do it, " Nita said.

Also, the clients, particularly the IDUs and sex workers, are very selective about who they will trust.

"Once they trust a certain counselor they tend to stick with that counselor and refuse to seek help from any other counselor," she said.

In this kind of environment, where the activists are expected to be a constant source of support and comfort, it is natural that once in a while they feel a strange sense of desolation.

"Once, I drove aimlessly around on my motorbike with my eyes full of tears. I felt lonely. We help a lot of people but why, when we need help, there isn't anybody there for us. That's how I felt at that moment," Noldy said.

Despite the passing away of many good friends, the physical and psychological fatigue, the activists are all agreed that they will continue the battle the epidemic.

"We owe it to those who have gone before us. This battle has entered a new level. It is now a personal fight for each of us. We have lost several good people and we are determined not to let another friend fall," the head of Yayasan Matahati, Yacintha Egamadona, stressed.

She lost her best friend and mentor a couple years ago. The memory of him still brings tears to her eyes today.

To these activists, the deaths are not a statistic but an indescribable loss, a personal pain that steels their will for the ongoing struggle against the epidemic, the one struggle they cannot afford to lose.

[kikitielman]

indonesia has major health problem, and most of them are dillematic
aids is only a minor thing that can become a major problem. but the biggest problem indonesia are stroke and cancer. i'm not suggesting anything here, but i just want you all to consider and rethink.

stroke is almost be certified as the major killing in indonesia, one think that i know the source of this disease is because of our food, we eat too much greasy food and do less excercise. especially after the booming of McPoison, KeepFatConsuming, etc give us a very obese generation, and if don't stop this in the next 5 or 10 years, most of the young age generation will have heart problems, and our life expentacy will decrease.
it's also for cancer..... I'M PROMOTING smoke-free for indonesia, it can be done if it starts from YOU

cheers,




kikitielman
promoting indonesia smoke free

[Ara]

Saya setuju. I want to see every building smoke free in Jakarta. It is very annoying to whenever I come back home to go to PIM and smell all this smoke. South Africa has a good rule when it come to compromise. Every restaurant and bar are required to make 75% of its venue smoke free and 25% smoking area. The smoking area is enclosed and those in the smoke free are free from, well, smoke.

[Ara]

African Strain of Polio Virus Hits Indonesia
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

Published: May 3, 2005

A case of polio has been detected in Indonesia, World Health Organization officials said yesterday, indicating that an outbreak spreading from northern Nigeria since 2003 has crossed an ocean and reached the world's fourth most populous country.

The virus, found in a village on the island of Java, is most closely related to a strain that was found in Saudi Arabia in December, the officials said. The most likely explanations of how it got there are that it either was brought back by an Indonesian working in Saudi Arabia or by a pilgrim who went to Mecca in January.

Indonesia's last case was in 1995, and it is now the 16th country to be reinfected by a strain of the virus that broke out in northern Nigeria when vaccinations stopped there, then crossed Africa and the Red Sea.

Officials recommended that Indonesia immediately vaccinate five million children on the western end of Java, including the capital, Jakarta, to contain the virus. The country began planning such a drive last week, they said.

Indonesia has more Muslims than any other nation, and polio is now found almost exclusively in Muslim countries or regions.

Resistance to polio vaccine has been high from northern Nigeria to the Pakistan frontier because of persistent rumors that it is a Western plot to render Muslim girls infertile or to spread AIDS. Paradoxically, after several states in Muslim northern Nigeria halted vaccinations in 2003, it was purchases of Indonesian vaccine that persuaded wary imams and politicians to drop their opposition, because it is a Muslim country.

With each new case, the W.H.O.'s goal of eradicating polio by the end of this year slips farther away. With its emergency response fund virtually depleted, the organization is pleading with donors for help with containing new outbreaks in Ethiopia, Yemen and other very poor countries.

At the disease's low point, in early 2003, it was endemic in only six countries: Nigeria, Niger, Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India.

The current case was found in a village in Sukabumi Province in West Java in an 18-month-old boy who became paralyzed in mid-March, said Dr. Bruce Aylward, coordinator of the polio eradication drive for the health organization.

Genetic typing of the virus, completed in India, shows that the original source of the strain was northern Nigeria, said Dr. David L. Heymann, the W.H.O. director general's representative for polio eradication.

Comparison with databases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta shows that it is about 99.2 percent similar to a strain circulating in Saudi Arabia and 99.1 percent similar to a strain in Sudan, suggesting that it came through Saudi Arabia, "but they're so close that it's a hard call," Dr. Aylward said.

Dr. Christopher P. Maher, chief of technical support in the health organization's polio division, visited Sukabumi last week and found that no relatives of the child had gone to areas where polio was endemic, but other families in the village had members who had gone recently to Saudi Arabia as workers or pilgrims.

There are other cases of paralysis in the village that "are very hot - they clinically look like polio," Dr. Aylward said.

It is unclear how many cases exist, but their presence suggests widespread circulation of the virus, since only one case in 200 produces paralysis. Confirmation takes time; each requires two stool samples taken at least 24 hours apart and then shipped to a laboratory and cultured for days or weeks before testing.

But vaccination should start as soon as possible, the officials said. Reaching five million children "doesn't sound like 'targeted' vaccination," Dr. Aylward conceded, "but in a country of 250 million, it is."

Only 75 percent to 80 percent of Indonesia's children get routine polio vaccinations, he said, and some areas have better coverage than others. Indonesia is a large chain of islands, and parts of it, including northern Sumatra, are in rebellion against Jakarta's rule. When polio gets into war-torn areas, as it has in Sudan and Ivory Coast, it can become much harder to eliminate.

Until recently, Indonesia also lacked a polio emergency plan that provides for vaccinating at least half a million children within four weeks of finding a case, going house to house. Still, Dr. Aylward said, "I'd rather take the virus on in Indonesia than in a Sudan or a Yemen or the Horn of Africa, where you've got less than 50 percent baseline coverage."

Many countries stopped vaccinating or cut back substantially when they eliminated polio in the 1990's. "We're paying a penalty for that now," Dr. Aylward said.

During the 11 months it took until northern Nigeria resumed vaccinations, the disease spread across Africa from Guinea on the Atlantic to Sudan on the Red Sea. One case was found as far south as Botswana. Some outbreaks have been contained quickly, but those in Sudan and Ivory Coast, and a new one in Yemen, all appear to be spreading faster than vaccinators can head them off.

The infection routes followed African highways that skirt the southern edge of the Sahara, and ferry routes on the Red Sea.

The disease was found in Jidda and Mecca in Saudi Arabia late last year, and polio eradication officials said in February that they feared that the annual Muslim pilgrimage could spread it around the world.

In 1988, when polio was endemic in 125 countries, the annual world assembly of health ministers in Geneva declared a goal of eradicating it by 2000. That target was missed, but a $3 billion campaign had it contained in six countries by early 2003.

[Zorobabel]

Indonesia Struggles to Halt Polio's Spread as Cases Jump to 111

July 6 (Bloomberg) -- Indonesia's government is extending a vaccination campaign against polio as it struggles to contain the first outbreak of the disease in the country in a decade because some parents are refusing to let their children take the vaccine.

The government is extending by three days the second round of a vaccination campaign that was supposed to end yesterday, after it reached only four-fifths of the targeted children, Yusharmen, head of the immunization division at the Health Ministry, said.

Polio which has infected 111 children under five years since April, has spread outside the main island of Java. The increase in cases worldwide this year, including an outbreak in Yemen in April with 284 people infected, is calling into question a World Health Organization program to eradicate the crippling disease by this year, which has cost $3.1 billion since 1998.

``I won't let my children receive any more vaccination,'' said Sainah Herman, 41, from her house in Sukamaju village in the Depok district, 75 kilometers (46.6 miles) south of the capital. Her nine-month old daughter died after suffering from fever and diarrhea, six days after the baby received the polio vaccination in the first campaign in May.

Health authorities provided 5.4 million children with the oral vaccine through July 4, 18 percent fewer than the 6.55 million children vaccinated in the first round in May, Yusharmen said.

Resisting Vaccination

``There is growing resentment among the people because of wrong perception that they can get sick from the vaccine,'' Yusharmen said in an interview yesterday.

Five other babies in Sukamaju village got sick after they received the vaccine.

The case in Sukamaju, as well as similar incidents in other areas, has nothing to do with the vaccine, Yusharmen said.

``Investigations revealed that the babies died either from dengue or respiratory diseases,'' he said. Dengue, which causes fevers, rashes, headaches, muscle pain and sometimes death, is an annual occurrence in Indonesia, WHO said on Feb. 8.

It's still hampering the effort by the government to have 24 million children in the nation vaccinated before the end of the year, he said.

The two-round campaign in three provinces has cost the government $2.37 million, the World Health Organization has said. The cost may rise to more than 200 billion rupiah ($20 million) in total, Yusharmen said.

Of 406 children registered in Sukamaju village, 151 were vaccinated in the second round, said Ngatno, a village chief. ``That number is much lower compared with 391 who participated in the first round. Our officers went door to door with not much success. Nabila's death is making people afraid.''

Rising Cases

About 662 cases of polio have been confirmed in 12 countries this year, WHO said on its Web site.

Six countries are still polio-endemic: Afghanistan, Egypt, India, Niger, Nigeria, and Pakistan, WHO said. Six other nations, all in Africa, were listed as having ``re-established transmission,'' with outbreaks lasting more than six months.

WHO said it needs $50 million for global immunizations for the second half of 2005 by July, and needs multiyear pledges for the following three years, the most pressing of which is $200 million, for 2006, the organization said. The money is needed to keep the disease from re-emerging if the eradication is successful.

Polio mainly affects children under 5, causing paralysis and sometimes death, according to the UN agency. The virus may have traveled to Indonesia from West Africa, where a similar polio strain caused an outbreak that spread to Central Africa, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, WHO said.

The children who contracted polio hadn't received a complete vaccination against the disease, the organization has said.

The first of the Indonesian cases was detected on April 21 in Sukabumi district in West Java province. Sukabumi is about 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of the capital, Jakarta.

The Indonesian Ministry of Health plans to vaccinate 85 percent of the national population under 5 years of age before the end of the year, WHO said earlier.

[Zorobabel]

Indonesia under fire for its limited steps to contain avian flu
By Tim Johnson, Knight Ridder Newspapers

BOGOR, Indonesia - Despite worldwide pressure for Indonesia to contain avian flu, it's taking little action, increasing the odds that a global pandemic could ignite here.

Indonesia resists killing large numbers of chickens to stamp out the disease and has yet to pay farmers for the small number of foul culled earlier this year.

The inaction has frustrated some global health experts, who say that a more deadly strain of the avian flu virus may be mutating in Indonesia and preparing to spark a global catastrophe.

The virus hasn't yet mutated into a form able to leap easily among humans, but scientists fear that it could do so at any time. That could start a global pandemic as the disease spreads in Indonesia and infects world travelers, who could spread it to the United States and the rest of the world.

Even now, the virus relentlessly evolves every day. And although it hasn't taken a form that passes easily among people, it nevertheless continues to infect and kill.

So far, four Indonesians have caught avian flu, and three have died. A suspected new case was reported in Sumatra this week.

Indonesia is only one front in a worldwide campaign to defend against the lethal H5N1 strain of the virus, which first surfaced in Hong Kong in 1997 and since re-emerging in 2003 has sickened people in 11 countries (Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Laos, Malaysia, Russia,
South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam) since December 2003.

So far this year, at least 60 people have died in Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia mostly after coming into contact with ailing birds.

Indonesian authorities are battling the perception that they care less about setting off a global health calamity than they do about protecting a huge poultry industry.

"We care about a pandemic. We do care. But so far, there is no scientific evidence of human-to-human transmission," said Mathur Riady, the director general of livestock services at the Agriculture Department.

Indonesian health officials say other fatal or crippling diseases present more immediate threats to the nation than bird flu, including polio, malaria, tuberculosis and dengue fever - which alone has killed 650 people here this year. They say that Western nations don't care much about those constant killers as long as they're confined to the tropics.

The potential for an avian flu pandemic, though, has focused attention on Indonesia and its limited steps to contain bird flu. The
World Health Organization says an avian flu pandemic could kill from 2 million to more than 7 million people worldwide.

"Avian influenza has not been a priority for Indonesians," said Juan Lubroth, an animal health expert with the Food and Agricultural Organization in Rome.

Unlike nearby Thailand, Indonesia hasn't deployed an army of veterinarians and public health volunteers to crisscross the country with poultry vaccines and a mandate to cull sick birds. Avian flu virus is present in 22 of the 33 provinces of Indonesia, a country of 242 million people who live on an archipelago that's slightly less than three times the size of Texas.

Public awareness of the disease in Indonesia is dim. Many people don't believe the outbreak is a real threat to humans.

"The bird flu story is just a smokescreen to get people's attention away from the gasoline price increases," said Budi Setiawan, an exotic bird vendor at Jakarta's Pramuka bird market, referring to fuel price hikes of more than 80 percent last week.

Teams of foreign agriculture experts and offers of foreign aid are pouring into Indonesia, but Jakarta flatly resists demands by the WHO that it kill all fowl in a radius of slightly less than two miles from where a bird flu infection is detected, as other nations have done.

"Some donors suggest that we have a stamping-out strategy. That's a problem. If we did that for two months, all the chickens would be gone. What happens to the farmers then?" Riady said.

The government is short on vaccines for poultry, has a dismal surveillance system and allots almost no money to pay farmers when their chickens are destroyed. It has yet to pay farmers for 800,000 chickens culled this year, creating a disincentive for farmers to report new outbreaks.

"Why should somebody report when they have a (bird flu) problem when they will have their entire livelihood lost?" asked Lubroth, the expert from the Food and Agricultural Organization. "If you do not have a compensation strategy, people will hide it."

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono faces numerous other problems, including street protests over gas price increases and the Oct. 1 terrorist bombings on the resort island of Bali. Still, some analysts say his government hasn't addressed the avian flu crisis decisively.

"The government gives the impression that this is not a serious matter," said Soedjati Djiwandono, a prominent political analyst and newspaper columnist.

Commercial poultry farms house 1 billion chickens, supplying the 9.7 pounds of chicken meat the average Indonesian eats per year. Backyard flocks of egg-laying chickens account for another 394 million birds. Millions of Indonesians live in close proximity to chickens.

Public health experts say Indonesia must get more teams out to find sick chickens harboring the virus.

"They have to look for sick birds and unusual deaths," said Subash Salunke, an epidemiologist and regional WHO adviser based in New Delhi.

Curiously, none of the four confirmed cases of Indonesians with avian flu has involved a poultry farm or slaughterhouse worker, raising questions about how viral transmission occurs. Experts say eggshells, duck meat and poultry feces have all been shown to hold high quantities of the H5N1 virus.

Also a mystery is why the strain of H5N1 in Indonesia is unlike the ones found in Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia, yet similar to one found in wild foul in China.

Indonesia has the fourth richest bird habitat in the world, with some 1,585 species. More than 100 of the species, including small warblers, aquatic birds and eagles, migrate each year from as far away as Siberia.

Health authorities shut Jakarta's Ragunan Zoo on Sept. 19 for three weeks of disinfecting when experts determined that birds there were carriers of the virus.

Persuading bird-loving Indonesians to treat birds cautiously, however, is no easy feat.

"One in five households in Java have birds, like songbirds," said Ria Saryanthi of Bird Life Indonesia, a nonprofit environmental group in this city, two hours drive south of Jakarta. Bird hobbyists, she added, "love their birds more than their wives."

Even free-range chickens are considered symbols of success and fortune.

"Watching chickens walk around makes me happy," said Gianto, a plant vendor, who like many Indonesians uses only one name. As he coddled one of his backyard birds, Gianto dismissed concern about avian flu, saying the disease "is carried by the wind."

While many Indonesians remain unaware of a possible global calamity, physicians at Jakarta's main infectious diseases hospital are concerned.

"Some say the pandemic is knocking at our door," said Dr. Sardikin Giriputro, who manages the hospital's logistics. Giriputro said the hospital isn't prepared.

It has enough of the anti-viral medicine Tamiflu, which may increase the likelihood of survival, for only 20 patients, and it's short on gowns, gloves and surgical masks, he said. Any epidemic would swamp the hospital.

"Many things will collapse, even the hospital and the health services," Giriputro said. "Most of the doctors and nurses would take care of their families first."

[Fir3blaze]

Shows that some people don't have consience. Both officials and businessmen
involved should be severely punished for putting other's lives at risk.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------


Indonesia to test bird flu vaccines after graft scandal

JAKARTA (AFP): Indonesia will run tests its stock of bird flu vaccine after a corruption scandal involving production of sub-standard doses, an official said Monday.

Government auditors suspect that local companies assigned to make the vaccine produced doses of inferior quality to inflate profits, with the collusion of some ministry officials.

The disease has killed at least three Indonesians and 59 others elsewhere in Southeast Asia since 2003.

The agriculture ministry's director for animal health, Syamsul Bahri, said his office would test vaccine currently in stock or in circulation to determine whether it met minimum specifications.

"Our laboratory capacity is limited so we will gradually test samples and decide which vaccine can continue to be used and which (will) have to be withdrawn from circulation," Bahri told AFP.

He could not immediately estimate the number of samples involved or the time needed for all of the necessary tests.

Ministry spokesman Suprahtomo said the suspected corruption case was now in the hands of state prosecutors and the ministry would abide by whatever decision was made.

On Sunday, Minister of Agriculture Anton Apriyantono said there were nine suspected corruption cases involving his ministry last year, totaling Rp 733 billion (US$72.9 million) in lost funds for the ministry including the bird flu case, which cost Rp56.9 billion.

"This not only caused losses to the state in material form, it also reduced the effectiveness of vaccines or led to low vaccine protection levels," Anton said.

The minister said some testing conducted in Java last year showed the vaccine's protection level was only around 11.8 to 28 percent.

Zainal Baharuddin, inspector general at the ministry, has said local producers intentionally lowered the vaccine quality to make more profits from the contract. (***)

[Ara]

They should be charged with attempted murders.

[Blue_Sky]

Larangan Merokok Diberlakukan 1 Januari 2006

Mulai tahun 2006, warga yang memiliki kegemaran merokok tidak dapat lagi melakukan hobinya itu di sembarangan tempat. Pasalnya, mulai 1 Januari 2006, Peraturan Gubernur (Pergub) tentang larangan merokok di tempat umum akan diberlakukan. Hal tersebut dikatakan Gubernur DKI Jakarta Sutiyoso kepada wartawan di Balai Kota, Selasa (18/10).

Berdasarkan Pergub 75 Tahun 2005 Tentang Kawasan Dilarang Merokok, para perokok di tempat umum akan dikenakan sanksi berupa kurungan enam bulan atau denda maksimal Rp 50 juta.

Mantan Pangdam Jaya itu memberikan waktu 3 bulan kepada pengelola gedung baik swasta maupun negeri untuk menyediakan ruangan khusus merokok bagi para perokok. "Kita berikan waktu 3 bulan. Nanti setelah itu kita lakukan operasi," kata Sutiyoso.

Sutiyoso akan menindak tegas para pengelola gedung yang sampai 31 Desember 2005 belum membangun ruangan khusus merokok bagi perokok. "Pergub yang telah dibuat harus dilaksanakan secara konsisten tanpa pandang bulu," ungkap Sutiyoso.

Sebagai implementasi awal Pergub 75/2005, BPLHD telah mengirin surat Gubernur DKI Jakarta kepada 89 pengelola gedung di tiga lokasi di kawasan Monas, Thamrin dan Sudirman. "Jumlah pengelola gedung yang telah mengisi dan mengembalikan formulir partisipasi sebanyak 31 pengelola," ujar Kepala BPLHD DKI Kosasih Wirahadikusumah, Selasa (18/10).

Pasal 13 ayat 1 peraturan Daerah (Perda) Nomor 2 Tahun 2005 menyebutkan tempat umum, sarana kesehatan dan tempat kerja yang secara spesifik sebagai tempat proses belajar mengajar, arena kegiatan anak, tempat ibadah dan angkutan umum dinyatakan sebagai kawasan dilarang merokok.

Sedangkan pasal 24 ayat 1 menyebutkan pengelola gedung bertanggung jawab terhadap kualitas udara di dalam ruangan yang menjadi kawasan umum. "Dan ayat 2 menyebutkan bahwa pengelola gedung umum wajib mengendalikan pencemaran udara di dalam ruangan, parkir kendaraan bermotor," katanya Kosasih.

Kosasih menambahkan, adapun partisipasi pengelola gedung dalam hal pengendalian pencemaran udara dalam bentuk penyediaan ruang khusus merokok, penyediaan exhaust fan dalam ruangan khusus untuk merokok, pemasangan tanda larangan merokok di sembarang tempat, pemasangan tanda arah menuju ruangan khusus untuk merokok dan pelarangan merokok di seluruh area gedung.

"Sosialisasi yang dilaksanakan pada hari ini diikuti oleh 60 pengelola gedung yang terdiri dari pengelola gedung kawasan Monas 22 pengelola, Thamrin 13 pengelola dan Sudirman 27 pengelola.

Pada kesempatan yang sama Sekretaris Daerah (Sekda) Ritola Tasmaya mengimbau agar pelaksanaan Pergub 75/2005 akan mulai efektif berlaku Januari 2006 mendatang. "Kita dalam menerapkan sebuah aturan selalu mengkaji terlebih dulu apakah peraturan itu bisa di jalankan atau tidak lalu baru gubernur menanda tangani SK ini. Kita telah berkoordinasi dengan Dirjen POM dan pihak kepolisian untuk bisa melaksanakan Pergub ini," tegasnya.

Sekda mengatakan, pelaksanaan Pergub 75/2005 tentang kawasan dilarang merokok dimaksudkan bukan untuk melarang orang merokok di tempat umum. "Yang dilarang adalah merokok di dalam ruangan," jelasnya.
Sedangkan tujuannya, kata Ritola yaitu bagaimana warga Ibukota khsusunya para perokok dapat merubah perilaku seperti tidak merokok di sembarang tempat dan lebih toleransi kepada yang tidak merokok.



Penulis: agus

Sumber: Agus

source ; http://www.beritajakarta.com/V_Ind/berita_detail.asp?idwil=0&nNewsId=17535

[cOcO_cHaneL]

yeah in any building they should have smoking room even in the airport or small building.. cuz indo smokers - hell lot of them~~

[XxRyoChanxX]

not just indo..asian ppl in general are all smokeaholic...

[Zorobabel]

Indonesia Neglected Bird Flu Until Too Late, Experts Say
By Alan Sipress
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, October 20, 2005; Page A01

JAKARTA, Indonesia, Oct. 19 -- Indonesian officials covered up and then neglected a spreading bird flu epidemic for two years until it began to sicken humans this summer, posing a grave threat to people well beyond the country's borders, according to Indonesian and international health experts.

Unlike Southeast Asian countries that began to see human cases almost as soon as avian influenza was identified in their poultry, Indonesia had a generous head start to prevent an outbreak among people. But since July, it has registered more human cases than any other country, including three deaths confirmed by international testing. Influenza specialists agree that the actual number of human cases is higher and expect it to rise with the approach of the rainy season.

Health experts say the Indonesian epidemic started in commercial poultry farms, spread among the tens of millions of free-range chickens raised in back yards across the country and then finally infected people. At each step, the Indonesian government failed to take measures that could have broken the chain, while discouraging research into the outbreak.

As a result, specialists are concerned that the cases in Indonesia pose a worldwide threat if the bird flu virus changes and becomes contagious among humans.

"If the government had acted sooner to stamp it out, there would be no outbreak. They have wasted so much time," said Chairul A. Nidom, an Indonesian microbiologist who first identified the virus in this country's birds. "What terrifies me is that it just won't affect Indonesia."

In recent days, the virus has killed birds in Turkey, Romania and possibly Greece, for the first time presenting a danger to European poultry. Russia on Wednesday reported that preliminary tests, conducted after hundreds of birds died south of Moscow, showed the presence of the virus, according to news services. And China reported a fresh outbreak of bird flu in its northern grasslands, where 2,600 birds have died of the disease.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization warned that the chances were increased that avian flu would move to the Middle East and Africa.

Health experts stress, however, that a human pandemic is still most likely to erupt in East Asia. Bird flu is already deeply entrenched among Asian poultry. Moreover, many countries in the region lack both basic agricultural safeguards to prevent the disease from spreading to humans and health care systems able to contain the virus if it does.

Since 2003, at least 60 people in Southeast Asia have died of the illness. U.N. health officials warn the threat could multiply if bird flu develops into a form easily passed among humans, potentially setting off a plague killing tens of millions of people worldwide.

Indonesia, in particular, is a worry to U.N. and other international experts, partly because it has Southeast Asia's largest population of both people and poultry. The country also has an impoverished health care system that has deteriorated significantly since the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the weakening of central government authority following the 1998 ouster of the longtime dictator Suharto.

In an interview with The Washington Post this spring, Tri Satya Putri Naipospos, Indonesia's national director of animal health, first disclosed that officials had known chickens were dying from bird flu since the middle of 2003 but kept this secret until last year because of lobbying by the poultry industry. She also revealed that the government had not set aside any money this year to vaccinate poultry against the virus though officials had trumpeted this as the centerpiece of their strategy to contain the disease.

Naipospos repeated her allegations late last month, but this time in Indonesian in an interview with the influential local newspaper Kompas. A day after the article was published, the Agriculture Ministry fired her.

U.N. officials complained that her dismissal had set back efforts to fight the virus, faulting the government for ousting what they call its most respected animal health expert at the height of a crisis.

Naipospos alleged that bird flu has never been a priority in the Agriculture Ministry. Until recent months, she added, the ministry was even unwilling to tap its $3 million emergency account to pay for disease control measures.

"They could not see the potential threat until there was an actual threat," she said in an interview with The Post last week. "I talked to the minister about it many times. He said a disease outbreak is not a national emergency, not a disaster."

Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono said the Indonesian government considers bird flu a matter of great concern. Every morning, he said, he files a report with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on efforts to battle the disease.

"That means our attention is very high on how to address this problem," the minister said in an interview. "The thing is, we don't want to publicize too much about bird flu because of the effect on our farms. Prices have dropped very drastically."

Apriyantono said he fired Naipospos because he was not happy with her handling of bird flu and her working relationship with top ministry officials.

When the virus first appeared in Indonesia in the summer of 2003, government officials were divided over whether the sudden death of hens on a commercial farm on Java island was caused by bird flu or a less virulent ailment, Newcastle disease. Nidom, a professor at Indonesia's Airlangga University, was called in. Within two months, he said, his laboratory research had determined that the ailment was indeed bird flu and was genetically related to a strain found seven years earlier in southern China.

But the owners of major poultry companies, who have personal ties to senior Agriculture Ministry officials, insisted that any containment efforts be done secretly, Naipospos recalled. These eight farming conglomerates, which handle 60 percent of the country's poultry, feared that publicity would harm sales of chicken and eggs. Offering new details in her interview last week, Naipospos said owners even lobbied Indonesia's president at the time, Megawati Sukarnoputri.

"They said, 'It's better to do it with confidentiality. Do a hidden, silent operation,' " Naipospos recounted. "I said, 'It won't work if you do a silent operation. This is a disease that can't be hidden. It's too risky.' "

In late January 2004, Nidom broke ranks and announced his findings to the Indonesian news media. A day later, the Agriculture Ministry confirmed the bird flu outbreak. But already the disease had spread across Java and on to Bali and Sumatra islands.

"It was too late. The virus was everywhere," Nidom recalled.

Last fall, with human cases mounting in Vietnam and Thailand, Nidom was growing increasingly nervous about the prospect of the epidemic spreading to Indonesians. He arranged an October conference at his university to examine bird flu and invited four of the world's premier influenza researchers, from the United States, Japan, Hong Kong and mainland China.

Shortly before its scheduled start, a senior agriculture official contacted Yoes Prijatna Dachlan, the head of Nidom's institute, and demanded that foreign participants and all media be banned, Dachlan said. Dachlan, chairman of the university's Tropical Disease Center, said he rejected the conditions and canceled the gathering. Nidom said officials threatened to have police break it up if it proceeded.

Apriyantono said in the interview that he was unfamiliar with the incident but that Indonesia was open to foreign researchers.

Through this summer, avian flu continued to spread, often unreported, and containment efforts remained unfunded. The disease reached two-thirds of the country's provinces. Then in July, a father and two daughters in an affluent Jakarta suburb died of respiratory disease. The father tested positive as the country's first bird flu victim. Health investigators concluded that his daughters likely died of the same cause.

Responding to public anxiety, Apriyantono went on television to oversee the culling of several dozen pigs and ducks on a farm 10 miles away. But when the cameras left, the campaign stalled. Officials backed away from a vow to kill about 200 swine in the area. Thousands of chickens, identified by health experts as the leading suspects in the outbreak, escaped slaughter.

As suspected human cases mounted last month, government officials said they would take extraordinary measures. Apriyantono said he was changing course and would order a mass slaughter of poultry in any area declared highly infected.

But one month later, Apriyantono acknowledged that he has yet to define such an area. As a result, he has now directed that culling be limited to the specific property where an infection is detected and that neighboring birds be spared.

Special correspondent Yayu Yuniar contributed to this report.

[Ara]

What a disgrace. Those involved in the cover up must be sacked and brought up on criminal charges. The whistleblower that was fired should get her job back. This outbreak could've been avoided if it wasn't for greed. Total disgrace. The minister himself should also be sacked.

[stoofy]

i cant wait till the smoking regulations are in place!
indonesian smokers are one of the rudest smokers i ever met... of course, i didnt have a problem with smokers before..not until i lost a loved one who was a heavy smoker. im not trying to make those who smoke to quit..honestly, i dont care if they smoke..as long as they have MANNERS! i really dont care if they get sick and die (its their choice, right?) and its not my intention to create a smoke-free society (it would be wonderful, though). But i do feel sorry to theier loved ones who will have to endure the sadness & burden of losing someone due to smoke-related death.

i actually sent a letter the WHO...and heres my email to them ( i know..i sound nerdy .hehehe) but i just wanted to know their views about the problems of smoking in indonesia (and of course, they never replied ):


I have noticed that statistic shows that around 70% of Indonesians are smokers, and there are more than 50,000 smoke-related deaths every year. I also noticed that one of WHO’s strategic agenda for Indonesia is to ‘promote healthy environment and lifestyles’.

As an Indonesian, I’ve also noticed that there are no strict regulations regarding cigarette advertisement, and no regulations regarding smoking in public areas (or at least, not being enforced enough). One of the worst and ridiculous facts is that people are allowed to smoke in a restaurant. I found this quite disgusting, as I have to eat food while inhaling the toxic and noxious smokes around me. In airports where it is clearly indicated that the area is non-smoking, I still find people that smokes, and when I did approach them or the authority, they would not take my comment seriously. It’s a pity that there are no laws being enforced, and no fines being induced to these people who are actually ‘breaking the law’.


I have been extremely impressed with the laws regarding smoking in Australia. Not only did they make cigarette advertisements illegal, they also make responsible and smart decisions to not allow people smoke in an enclosed area, or in any restaurants. To me, this kind of regulations shows just how much more advanced the country is in comparison to Indonesia. And I’m glad that Asians countries such as Singapore and Thailand are beginning to take the problem seriously, and are planning to tackle the problems in anti-smoking campaign and ‘shock’ advertisements (by showing pictures of how smoking could damage our organs).

I have been particularly annoyed for the past few days because I’ve been hearing Starmild Menthol being advertised in radios. I’ve been listening to Cosmopolitan FM from Jakarta, and I’m quite disgusted to hear how the ad is implying the image of female smokers as sexy. Of course, I have post my complaint to the radio through their bulletin board in their website.

The intention of this email, is that I would like to find out whether WHO have been approaching the government in regard to laws regulating smoking? And what are the steps the WHO is making in order to tackle the smoking problems in Indonesia?

I would like to apologize if this email is bothering you. However, I believe that its about time that the problems of smoking is to be taken seriously, and I have no idea who would be more capable in emphasizing this message more than the WHO.



and ive been listening to cosmopolitan fm..and is totally annoyed with the new starmild menthol ad...so i post this complaint:

gua akhir2 ini sering banget dengerin iklan starmild menthol di cosmoFM...stiap kali gua denger iklan itu, gua rasanya pengen ketawa dengerin suara cewe di iklan yg bisa aja ngucapin merokok bisa meyebabkan kita impotensi,dan cancer dengan santainya dan dengan suara sok seksinya...soalnya, as someone who personally experienced and have lost a loved one due to lung&brain cancer, it is NOT so sexy untuk menderita cancer gara2 rokok. it is not so sexy ngeliat keluarga kita sedih ngeliat orang yang disayang dies painfully oleh cancer yang disebabkan merokok. nggak seksi melihat pacar saya broke down and cry waktu melihat papanya yang perokok berat jatuh koma dan meninggal...nggak gitu seksi ngeliat temen bokap yang sekarang ada lobang ditenggorakannya, dan harus pakai alat bantu suara karena operasi cancer.

gua kira cosmoFM,sebagai radio yang pendengarnya banyakan perempuan, bisa berpikir untuk promote sesuatu yang positif to its listeners..dan gua nggak nyangka cosmoFM bisa maunya ngeluarin iklan yang encourage smoking..malahan mau membuat image bahwa perempuan yang merokok itu seksi..what a pity.baru kali ini gua dissappointed dengan cosmoFM

di negara yang maju (misalnya australia), rokok itu udah gak boleh lagi di iklanin. gua malu indonesia masih dengan terbukanya promote sesuatu yang jelas2 gak sehat sebagai image yang 'cool'. udah waktunya negara ini berpikir yang lebih maju & make smart decisions



gosh..i know im a :weirdo:
hahaha

[tata]

Stoofy, you are a very thoughtful person.

[cOcO_cHaneL]

Stoofy, you are a very thoughtful person.
Yeah she is hey :)

[Blue_Sky]

Polio could be 'eradicated next year'

Tb. Arie Rukmantara, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

After carrying out what it describes as two successful rounds of polio vaccinations, the government is optimistic Indonesia will return to polio-free status next year.

That optimism is also shared by the World Health Organization, Minister of Health Siti Fadilah Supari said on Tuesday during a new conference to mark National Health Day, which fell on Nov. 12.

"That statement does not come from my mouth. I was quoting WHO leaders in Geneva who told me that based on Indonesia's performance in fighting the disease, the country would be polio-free by March next year," she said.

The WHO, she added, had suggested that Indonesia hold an extra round of vaccinations in March 2006.

"This would be an additional round of vaccinations, following the third round planned for later this month," the minister said.

She said the third round of the national vaccination campaign was scheduled for Nov. 30 and was targeting about 23.4 million children across the country.

About 22.9 million children were vaccinated during the second round of the drive in October. During the first round, about 22.2 million children were vaccinated.

"I encourage parents to have their children vaccinated again during these future vaccination rounds," Siti said.

She said the third round of the program would cost about US$12 million, more than 60 percent of which would come from foreign donors.

The WHO and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), along with Rotary International, have actively been involved in the government's efforts to eradicate polio, which reemerged in Indonesia in March after being absent for a decade.

As of October, at least 269 Indonesian children under the age of five in 10 provinces have contracted the disease this year.

The executive director of the Coalition for a Healthy Indonesia, Tom Malik, said the goal of eradicating polio in the country by next year could only be achieved if the next rounds of the vaccination drive were able to overcome logistical and information problems.

"It is a difficult task to assure that the vaccinations cover all areas throughout the country at the same time. Moreover, some parents are still afraid to take their children to the vaccination posts because of the side effects they may have after being vaccinated," he told The Jakarta Post.

Tom urged the health ministry to make more of an effort to educate the public about the vaccinations and to reassure them that the vaccinations do not harm the children.

"The ministry has done a good job of broadcasting social service ads. It should continue this work and it should disseminate more information to remote areas," he said.

The government has said the third round of vaccinations would have a special focus on provinces like North Maluku, Papua and West Irian Jaya, where the first two rounds reached less than 90 percent of targeted children.

[XxRyoChanxX]

I've read in the LA times that the Indonesian government is trying to hide the "avian flu" breakout in Indonesia

[sanhen]

It was Megawati. Not SBY government. Several high profile poulty businessman approach Mega to hide the news because they afraid it will hurt their sales.

[XxRyoChanxX]

but i've read it 2 weeks ago though

[Blue_Sky]

Than its Sutiyoso
Looks like he very piss off when Indonesian Health Organization (whatever the name) closed down Ragunan Zoo for 2 weeks

[XxRyoChanxX]

tsk tsk stk

[Blue_Sky]

ssnet| Penderita HIV-AIDS di Jawa Timur terus bertambah sampai dengan September 2005. Tercatat 604 kasus HIV-AIDS, 177 penderita diantaranya meninggal dunia.

Surabaya yang memiliki lokalisasi terbesar di Indonesia berada di urutan pertama dengan 270 kasus. Kota pariwisata Malang berada di urutan kedua sebanyak 43 kasus, Kabupaten Malang 26 kasus, dan 27 kasus di Kabupaten Sidoarjo.

Dilihat dari latar belakang penderita, HARIAYATI Pengelola Program HIV-AIDS Dinkes Propinsi Jatim mengatakan swasta dan wiraswasta menempati urutan pertama dengan 103 kasus. Disusul dengan karyawan/buruh 55 kasus, serta pelajar/mahasiswa 51 kasus.

Urutan keempat yakni WTS dan PSK yang disebut-sebut sebagai kelompok berpotensi untuk menularkan virus HIV-AIDS tercatat 21 kasus. Sedangkan urutan kelima tercatat 1 kasus dari tukang gigi.

“Semua kegiatan harus berkonsentrasi dengan penanggulangan HIV-AIDS. Jangan sampai masuk dalam level General Epidemic Level,” kata HARIAYATI pada JOSE reporter Suara Surabaya. [Audio On Demand]

Mengantisipasi berkembangan kasus HIV-AIDS yang sejak tahun 1989 terus naik, Dinkes telah mendirikan visiting clinic. Dengan memberikan penyuluhan dan penanggulangan AIDS secara gratis di 3 kota. Yakni Surabaya, Malang, dan Banyuwangi.

Surabaya memiliki Balai Pengobatan Paru Karang Tembok, RS Suwandi Tambak Rejo, RS Angkatan Laut Dr Ramelan, dan RS Dr Soetomo. Sedangkan di Malang terdapat di RS Saiful Anwar dan RS Islam Malang. Sementara visiting clinic Banyuwangi terdapat di RS Blambangan dan RS Al Huda.

sss dot net (http://www.suarasurabaya.net)

[Blue_Sky]

RI awaits WHO test on suspected bird flu victim

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Minister of Health Siti Fadilah Supari said on Monday that authorities were waiting for confirmation from a Hong Kong laboratory after local tests showed that another local man died of Avian influenza.

The 35-year-old man, whose identity was not disclosed, died at a private hospital in Jakarta, she said.

"Local tests showed that he died from bird flu but it must be confirmed by the Hong Kong laboratory," Siti told reporters referring to a laboratory of the World Health Organization (WHO).

The WHO has confirmed seven human fatalities in this country from the H5N1 strain since July. There are currently 17 patients thought to be infected by the virus still being treated at hospitals.

Meanwhile, the central government launched on Monday a nation-wide health campaign to push local administrations across the country to work harder in improving the health of their people.

The government will evaluate the performance of each administration later, and the best-performing regency or municipality will get a cash reward of around Rp 1 billion (US$1 million).

"We expect a quick response from the authorities on the national level to the village level to deal with infectious diseases such as bird flu or polio," Siti said.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has put bird flu eradication as one of the administration's top priorities. Indonesia has also been given international support to combat the bird flu outbreak.

Outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu have killed 67 people in Asia since 2003.

Despite criticism at home, a WHO director praised Indonesia, along with Thailand, for being "well-prepared" for a possible bird flu pandemic compared to other countries in Asia, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported.

"Thailand and Indonesia are now very well prepared and are responding to the situation," Jai Narain, director of WHO's communicable diseases department, said in Bangkok.

Narain and other WHO experts have gathered in Bangkok for a three-day seminar to discuss preparedness for pandemic outbreaks and other disasters with the health ministries from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar (Burma), Nepal, North Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor Leste (East Timor).

WHO experts said preparedness for a pandemic would require strong health system infrastructures and good inter-ministerial and inter-sectoral cooperation, as has been visible in Thailand's ability to cope with a host of recent outbreaks and natural disasters.

The H5N1 strain of avian influenza is thought to be transmitted from poultry to humans. However, scientists believe there may have been cases of limited human to human transmission involving healthy people in close daily contact with a sick person.

They fear the current H5N1 strain may mutate, acquiring genes from the human influenza virus that would make it highly infectious.

[Zorobabel]

The 20th bird flu death was just confirmed; the actual number is probably slightly higher.

I remember late last year the government said they wouldn't do a mass culling because it wasn't necessary, despite the fact that everyone in the international community was warning of the danger of the virus. Now, months later and with the virus having spread significantly they're going to have to spend $250 million this year to try to get the situation under control. Had more been done earlier, it probably could have saved $200 million.

[indorealty]

There is a danger that Indonesia might become the center for the mutation of bird flu virus that can jump from human to human. Already five families had more than one members who died from bird flu.Liputan6 SCTV (http://www.liputan6.com/view/3,116144,1,0,1140916580.html) Once this becomes an endemic, it may kill millions of people :runaway:

Moreover, the hospitals in Indonesia are not experienced enough to treat bird flu patients. It looks like the death rate is more than 90% among the suspected bird flu patients. I am counting death every day as shown on Liputan6 website.
20 deaths last Wednesday 22nd
24 deaths by Sunday 26th
and will keep on going and going
:eek2:

[Farean]

:(!!! I always wonder why Indonesia is such a cursed country...Why do we always Suffer the most?Economy crisis,Poverty,Deaseses,2 Neighbour Terrorists.. I'm so sad for my Country.........

[XxRyoChanxX]

omg!! so scary I pray that it won't happen!! :(

[Blue_Sky]

Kapanlagi.com - Ribuan orang Indonesia terutama dari Kota Medan, Jambi dan berbagai kota besar lainnya di Sumatera dilaporkan setiap bulannya berobat ke Pulau Penang, Malaysia dengan alasan biaya lebih murah dan pelayanannya sangat menyenangkan pasien.

"Jangan harap Bapak bisa dapat kamar hotel pada hari Sabtu dan Minggu di Pulau Penang, karena semua sudah terisi penuh yang umumnya tamu dari Indonesia," kata Ayong seorang pemandu wisata di Penang.

Pemandu perjalanan yang mengaku setiap hari mengurusi ratusan orang Indonesia yang datang ke Pulau Penang, mengaku mereka yang datang umumnya untuk berobat ke berbagai rumah sakit milik Kerajaan maupun swasta dan dokter specialis.

Orang-orang kaya di Medan dan kota lainnya di Sumatera Utara dan Aceh tampaknya lebih senang berobat ke Pulau Penang, terbukti dari jadwal kunjungan rutin mereka datang ke Penang yang hanya ditempuh setengah jam dengan pesawat dari Medan.

Lihat saja seperti Bapak ini dan keluarganya yang setiap bulan datang berobat ke Penang, tutur Ayong yang memiliki hubungan baik dengan para dokter seperti di Penang Hospital dan Rumah Sakit Adventis Penang karena setiap hari mengantar pasien dari Indonesia.

Sementara satu keluarga berasal dari Jalan Pelajar Medan, mengakui biaya berobat ke Pulau Penang sepertinya lebih murah dari di Medan seperti untuk general checkup, operasi mata, operasi kanker dan operasi jantung.

"Saya membawa suami operasi mata di Hospital Pulau Penang hanya kira-kira habis Rp6 juta, tetapi hasilnya memuaskan dan suami saya tidak perlu memakai kaca mata lagi," ucap Ny. Marlina yang mengaku ia sendiri sebagai perawat di Medan. (*/lpk)

[Zorobabel]

I don't think this is any surprise. The Indonesian government still refuses to do any mass culls.

---

Indonesia is bird flu 'time-bomb': animal health chief

PARIS (AFP) - Indonesia has become a bird flu "time-bomb" because of its failure to eradicate high numbers of deadly H5N1 sites, the head of the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health said.

"Indonesia is a time-bomb for the region," said organisation head Bernard Vallat, calling the situation a cause for "great concern".

"It is important for the Indonesian government to take the political decision" to step up its controls, with international help, Vallat said in an interview with AFP.

Vallat said that Indonesia was "one of the only countries in Asia" to have such a large number of unchecked infection sites.

He called for international creditors to "intervene massively" to help stem the spread of the virus, stressing the correlation between the number of infected birds and the number of cases of transmission to humans.

Thirty-three people have been contaminated in Indonesia by the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, 24 of whom died, according to the World Health Organisation.

[Alvin]

Bird flu explodes in Indonesia, one death every 2.5 days in May
By MARGIE MASON
AP Medical Writer
814 words
1 June 2006
10:29
Associated Press Newswires
English
(c) 2006. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Indonesia averaged one human bird flu death every 2 1/2 days in May, putting it on pace to soon surpass Vietnam as the world's hardest-hit country.

The latest death, announced Wednesday, was a 15-year-old boy whose preliminary tests were positive for the H5N1 virus. It comes as international health officials express growing frustration that they must fight Indonesia's stifling bureaucracy as well as the disease.

"We're tying to fix this leak in the roof, and there's a storm," World Health Organization spokesman Dick Thompson said. "The storm is: The virus is in animals almost everywhere and the lack of effective attention that's being addressed to the problem."

Indonesia, a massive archipelago of 17,000 islands that is home to 220 million people, has a patchwork of local, regional and national bureaucracies that often send mixed messages. The ultimate impression, officials said, is often that no one is truly at the helm.

"I don't think anyone can understand it unless you come here and see it for yourself," said Steven Bjorge, a WHO epidemiologist in Jakarta. "The amount of decentralization here is breathtaking."

He said health ministry officials will often meet with outside experts to formulate plans to fight bird flu, but the schemes are rarely realized.

"Their power only extends to the walls of their office," Bjorge said, adding their advice must reach nearly 450 districts, where local officials decide whether to take action in a nation that spans roughly the width of the United States.

Indonesia has undergone a sometimes rocky transition to democracy since dictator Suharto was ousted in 1998. Many powers once held in Jakarta have been given to regional and community governments.

But the process has been haphazard, and funding and policy decisions are often at the whim of inexperienced officials, mayors and village heads.

National government officials concede the problem.

"The local government has the money, thus the power to decide what to prioritize," Wibisono said. "If some district sees bird flu as not important, then we have a problem."

Indonesia has logged at least 36 human deaths in the past year -- 25 since January -- and is expected to soon eclipse Vietnam's 42 fatalities. The two countries make up the bulk of the world's 127 total deaths since the virus began ripping through Asian poultry stocks in late 2003.

Attention has been fixed for the past week on one village on Sumatra island where six of seven relatives died of bird flu. An eighth family member was buried before samples were collected, but WHO considers her part of the cluster.

Experts have not been able to link contact between the relatives and infected birds, which has led them to suspect limited human-to-human transmission may have occurred. But no one outside the family of blood relatives -- no spouses -- has fallen ill and experts have said the virus has not mutated in any way.

Scientists believe human-to-human transmission has occurred in a handful of other smaller family clusters, all involving blood relatives. Experts theorize that may mean some people have a genetic susceptibility to the disease, but no evidence supports that.

The disease remains hard for people to catch and most human cases have been traced to contact with infected birds. Experts fear the virus will mutate into a highly contagious form that passes easily among people, possibly sparking a pandemic with a death toll of millions.

Experts say the best way to battle bird flu in Indonesia is to tackle it in poultry.

But that message is not getting through to all levels. Many local governments have refused to carry out mass poultry slaughters in infected areas and vaccinations have been sporadic at best.

Such measures have helped other hard-hit countries like Vietnam and Thailand to curb outbreaks. Both have strong central governments that have taken a leading role in ensuring plans are carried out at the village level.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization has been working with officials to improve poultry surveillance in Indonesia and quicken response times to outbreaks.

But public awareness and bio-security standards remain low in the densely populated countryside, home to hundreds of millions of backyard chickens.

"It's not quite so easy here, where you have to have the local authorities and provincial authorities and national all on board," said Jeff Mariner, an animal health expert from Tufts University in Massachusetts working with the FAO in Jakarta.

"We find outbreaks every week scattered throughout Java. It's a diffusely endemic disease. In most districts, you can find it at any time," he said. "It's a staggering undertaking in a decentralized country."

[Zorobabel]

It's not a surprise. The government hasn't done anything about the unsanitary state of bird markets, much less carrying out the necessary mass culls. If the virus mutates, it's going to happen in Indonesia. And it's going to be a disaster.

[Alvin]

Indonesia Begins Slaughtering Poultry
By MARGIE MASON
AP Medical Writer
394 words
1 June 2006
20:18
Associated Press Newswires
English
(c) 2006. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Officials began slaughtering poultry Thursday in an Indonesian village where preliminary tests showed a 15-year-old boy died from bird flu, as the country struggled with a sudden rise in deaths averaging one every 2 1/2 days.

All chickens will be killed within a half mile of the boy's house in the Tasikmalaya district of West Java province, said Budi Utama, head of the local animal and fisheries agency.

Indonesian tests on Wednesday found that the boy had contracted the virulent H5N1 bird flu virus, and officials were awaiting confirmation from a World Health Organization-sanctioned laboratory in Hong Kong.

At least 36 people have died in Indonesia from bird flu, out of a world toll of 127, WHO says. The country averaged one human bird flu death every 2 1/2 days in May, putting it on pace to become the world's hardest-hit country, surpassing Vietnam's 42 deaths.

The boy's death is the third in the province from the H5N1 virus. A 10-year-old girl and her 18-year-old brother died within hours of each other last week in another village.

In North Sumatra province, six members of a single family in a tiny farm village recently died of bird flu and a seventh was sickened. An eighth family member was buried before samples were collected, but WHO considers her part of the family cluster of cases, the largest ever reported.

Experts have not found any link between the family and infected birds, which has led them to suspect human-to-human transmission. Only blood relatives -- no spouses or in-laws -- were sickened and no one outside the family has fallen ill.

Scientists suspect human-to-human transmission has also occurred in a few other smaller family clusters, all involving blood relatives. Experts theorize that could indicate some people have a genetic susceptibility to the disease.

Bird flu remains hard for people to catch, and most human cases have been traced to contact with infected birds. Experts fear the virus could mutate into a highly contagious form that passes easily among people, possible sparking a pandemic. However, there has been no sign that the virus has changed.

[XxRyoChanxX]

gosh stupid government doesn't take it seriously..they never learn their lesson

[Alvin]

Many Indonesians not eating enough, children underweight – UN report

6 July 2006 – Many people in Indonesia do not get enough to eat, significant numbers of the country’s children are underweight and infant mortality continues to be a problem right across the island nation’s archipelago, according to a new United Nations-backed study released today.

“There is an urgent need for agencies supporting nutrition programmes to join hands and provide packaged assistance for maximum impact, especially to improve the health of women and children,” UN World Food Programme (WFP) Country Director Mohamed Saleheen said of the study conducted jointly by his agency and Badan Pusat Statistik-Statistics Indonesia.

The study – Nutrition Map of Indonesia – breaks new ground by employing recently developed analytical techniques to measure for the first time Indonesia’s nutritional status all the way down to the sub-district level. It surveyed conditions in 3,688 sub-districts, covering 30 provinces and 341 districts and cities.

Its findings include:

* People in roughly half the sub-districts consume less than 1,700 kilocalories a day, well below the 2,100 considered necessary to provide the minimum energy required to adequately sustain an average adult.
* More than 30 per cent of pre-school children are underweight in 772 sub-districts particularly in North, West and South Sumatra, Jambi, East Java, Nusa Tenggara Barat (NTB), Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) and West Kalimantan.
* Infant mortality rates of 55 per 1,000 live births, significantly above the national average of 43 per 1,000, are prevalent in 1,079 sub-districts stretching across the country, including Jambi, Bengkulu, West Sumatra, Banten, West and Central Java, West and South Kalimantan and Central, South and Southeast Sulawesi.

Mr. Saleheen described the Nutrition Map as a valuable tool in highlighting those areas “that should be prioritized in any nutritional interventions.”

It is the first application in Indonesia of the Small Area Estimation technique to measure nutritional parameters, a recently developed methodology that attempts to combine the advantages of detailed information on household characteristics obtained from household surveys with the complete coverage of a population census.

It is particularly valuable in Indonesia, where assembling a representative sample would be prohibitively expensive in a country of nearly 250 million people with 33 provinces, 349 districts, 91 municipalities, 5,570 sub-districts and 71,634 villages.

[Zorobabel]

If the current trend continues, in a month Indonesia will have more deaths from bird flu than the rest of the world combined.

---

Indonesian woman dies of bird flu

JAKARTA, Indonesia - A 27-year-old woman was killed by bird flu — Indonesia's third death from the virus in as many days — bringing the nation's toll to 55, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.

The woman from Central Java province died Friday, five days after she developed symptoms of the disease and one day after she was hospitalized, the WHO said in a statement posted on its Web site.

"The source of her exposure is currently under investigation," it said.

According to WHO, of the 72 cases confirmed to date in Indonesia, 55 have been fatal.

An 11-year-old boy succumbed to the disease in a Jakarta hospital on Saturday and a 67-year-old woman died Sunday in the West Java town of Bandung, Indonesian health officials announced earlier this week.

The H5N1 virus has killed at least 151 people worldwide since it began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003, according to WHO.

Most of those killed have been infected by domestic fowl, but WHO fears the virus could mutate into a form that easily spreads among humans, sparking a pandemic with the potential to kill millions.

Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country and home to millions of backyard chickens, is considered a hot spot for that to happen.

The government has been criticized for failing to aggressively deal with the virus in poultry stocks, either by mass slaughters or vaccination.

[Blue_Sky]

:ohno:
No more bird flu please

[sanhen]

unfortunately - this wont be the last. :(

[XxRyoChanxX]

yikes!! not good!!! :(

[Blue_Sky]

Indonesia confirms two more bird flu deaths, on Bali

Jakarta (ANTARA) - An Indonesian woman and her five-year-old daughter on the tourist island of Bali have died of bird flu, a health ministry official confirmed Monday, bringing the nation's toll to 83.

The deaths are the first on Bali, where the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus was found more than a year ago.

The 29-year-old woman from the northwest of the island, far from the major tourist centres, died on Sunday, while her daughter died on August 3, said Bayu Krisnamurti, head of Indonesia's national bird flu commission.

"Both people are positive, from (tests at) the Eikman Institute and the health ministry's lab," he was quoted by AFP as telling a press briefing.

In Indonesia, two tests must be returned positive before a human infection is confirmed.

A two-year-old girl, a neighbour of the victims, was admitted to hospital on Sunday and is also suspected of being infected, he said.

Joko, from the Bird Flu Information Centre in Jakarta, said that chickens had died in the victims' neighbourhood of bird flu recently.

Indonesia reported its first human bird flu case in July 2005 and has since confirmed 81 deaths, the highest number of any nation.

Scientists worry the bird flu virus could mutate into a form easily spread among humans, leading to a global pandemic with the potential to kill millions.

Infected poultry was first found on the northwest of Bali last year, when hundreds of birds were culled but no human infections were found. (*)

Copyright © 2007 ANTARA

[XxRyoChanxX]

^BAli!! noooo

[Blue_Sky]

08/20/07 19:01

Japan to give 1.7 B yen to help RI fight bird flu

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Japan announced here Monday it has decided to provide Indonesia with 1.7 billion yen in grants to contain bird flu which has seen a steady rise in the number of human infections and deaths since the H5NI virus was detected in poultry in late 2003.

"We have decided to provide 1.7 billion yen in grants to contain bird flu in Indonesia," visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said at a joint press conference with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono here Monday.

Abe said President Yudhoyono had expressed gratitude for the Japanese commitment.

Yudhoyono said Indonesia and Japan had agreed to cooperate in dealing with bird flu.

"I have offered the Japanese premier bilateral cooperation to develop vaccines which will use virus available in Indonesia for the benefit of the two countries and the global community," Yudhoyono said.

Earlier in the day, the two leaders led a bilateral meeting and a business forum between the two countries, signed an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), and officiated at the launching of a number of bilateral cooperation projects.

The Japanese premier expressed hope that his three-day Indonesian visit which started on Sunday would serve as a good momentum for the two countries to enhance bilateral economic relations.

Abe, at the head of a 200-strong business delegation, described the newly-signed EPA as a concrete manifestation of heightened cooperation between the two countries.

"I hope this economic agreement will contribute a lot to enhanced relations between the two countries not only in the economic field but also in all sectors," he said.

He said Japan was also determined to assist Indonesia in reforming its economy, investment climate and democratization.

"To ensure that cooperation in the energy field, including energy retrenchment policies can be well implemented, we have decided to issue a joint statement in the fields of environment and energy," he said.

In addition, the two countries also had agreed to step up joint efforts in addressing regional and international issues, such as the North Korea issue in coordination with the UN Security Council.

Meanwhile, Yudhoyono said that in the economic field, Japan had been Indonesia`s important partner for the past 40 years, and the biggest trade partner in the past five years with their bilateral trade valume increasing 14.4 percent.

Following the signing of the EPA, Yudhoyono expressed Indonesia`s resolve to make every effort to improve its business climate at home and strengthen the two countries` cooperation in investment, energy, trade and others.

In the field of energy, the two countries agreed to continue their cooperation in the area of oil and gas, coal, electricity, and biofuel.

"Therefore, we are inviting investors from Japan to develop energy sources in Indonesia," Yudhoyono said.(*)

Copyright © 2007 ANTARA

[tata]

Menkes Sangkal Tuduh AS Bikin Senjata Biologi dari Flu Burung

Jakarta - Menkes Siti Fadilah Supari menelurkan buku bertajuk 'Saatnya Dunia Berubah! Tangan Tuhan di Balik Virus Flu Burung'. Buku tersebut ramai diulas media Barat.

Media Barat menulis bahwa dalam buku itu Siti Fadilah mengurai konspirasi Barat dalam menggunakan sampel flu burung. Mereka yang terlibat adalah AS dan WHO, yang memanfaatkan virus itu untuk senjata biologi.

Menkes Siti Fadilah Supari pun menepis hal tersebut. "Saya tidak ada tulisan US government-nya," ujar Menkes saat dikonfirmasi detikcom, Kamis (21/2/2008).

Menkes menjelaskan dalam buku yang diluncurkan 6 Februari 2008 itu dirinya tidak menuduh negara mana pun, termasuk AS.

Dia hanya mempertanyakan para peneliti di WHO menggunakan sampel virus flu burung negara berkembang untuk keperluan vaksin atau mengembangkan senjata kimia.

Siti Fadilah meluncurkan buku tersebut pada 6 Februari 2008. Buku itu setebal 182 halaman. Isinya adalah perjuangan menghapus ketidakadilan mekanisme pertukaran sampel virus yang telah berjalan selama 50 tahun.

Mekanisme yang diprotes tersebut adalah negara-negara berkembang yang menyumbangkan virusnya kepada WHO tidak bisa meminta hasil penelitian dan tidak dapat mengetahui apa yang terjadi dengan virus yang dikirimkan.
http://www.detiknews.com/index.php/d...752/idkanal/10


AS Sangkal Pakai Sampel Virus Flu Burung RI untuk Senjata Biologi

Jakarta - Menkes Siti Fadilah Supari terkenal vokal berbicara ketidakadilan dalam pertukaran sampel virus penyebab penyakit mematikan, termasuk flu burung. Dalam buku yang baru saja diluncurkannya, dia menuduh AS dan WHO terlibat konspirasi melawan negara berkembang dalam menguasai sampel virus flu burung.

Terhadap tuduhan ini, AS jelas menyangkalnya. Sebagaimana dilansir harian terbitan Australia, The Age, edisi Kamis (21/2/2008), Jubir Deplu AS Susan Stahl membantah klaim Bu Menkes bahwa sampel virus flu burung Indonesia telah dikirim ke laboratorium senjata biologi di Los Alamos, New Mexico, AS.

"Laboratorium itu tidak memiliki virus flu burung dari Indonesia atau negara lainnya," ujar Stahl.

Siti Fadilah meluncurkan buku berjudul 'Saatnya Dunia Berubah! Tangan Tuhan di Balik Virus Flu Burung' pada Rabu 6 Februari 2008.

Buku ini menarik perhatian media Barat karena dalam buku itu Menkes menulis konspirasi AS dan WHO dalam penguasaan sampel virus flu burung yang dianggap Menkes tidak adil dan tidak transparan. Negara penyumbang sampel virus, termasuk Indonesia, kesulitan mengakses sampel yang telah disumbangkannya dan tidak tahu apa yang terjadi pada virus itu.

Vaksin yang didapat dari virus flu burung made in Indonesia tersebut, lalu dikembangkan negara-negara maju yang tidak menjadi korban flu burung dan menjualnya kepada negara berkembang yang menjadi korban. Dari koran asing yang dibacanya, Menkes mendapatkan informasi bahwa virus flu burung dikirim ke Los Alamos National Laboratory di New Mexico, AS.

Los Alamos ternyata berada di bawah Kementerian Energi AS. Di lab inilah duhulu dirancang bom atom Hiroshima. Lalu untuk apa data itu, untuk vaksin atau senjata kimia?

The Age menulis, Fadilah pada Rabu kemarin kembali menyatakan bahwa sampel virus flu burung Indonesia yang diberikan pada WHO telah dikirimkan ke laboratorium senjata biologi di Los Alamos."Apakah mereka menggunakan itu sebagai vaksin atau mengembangkan senjata kimia, semuanya tergantung pada kebutuhan dan kepentingan Pemerintah AS," kata Siti. "Ini sungguh situasi yang sangat berbahaya bagi kemanusiaan," imbuhnya.
http://www.detiknews.com/index.php/d...616/idkanal/10

[peseg5]

go BU MENTRI... YOU'RE THE ONE!!! gak dituduh tapi kok merasa ya? Berarti benar... :applause::applause::applause:

Menkes Sangkal Tuduh AS Bikin Senjata Biologi dari Flu Burung

Jakarta - Menkes Siti Fadilah Supari menelurkan buku bertajuk 'Saatnya Dunia Berubah! Tangan Tuhan di Balik Virus Flu Burung'. Buku tersebut ramai diulas media Barat.

Media Barat menulis bahwa dalam buku itu Siti Fadilah mengurai konspirasi Barat dalam menggunakan sampel flu burung. Mereka yang terlibat adalah AS dan WHO, yang memanfaatkan virus itu untuk senjata biologi.

Menkes Siti Fadilah Supari pun menepis hal tersebut. "Saya tidak ada tulisan US government-nya," ujar Menkes saat dikonfirmasi detikcom, Kamis (21/2/2008).

Menkes menjelaskan dalam buku yang diluncurkan 6 Februari 2008 itu dirinya tidak menuduh negara mana pun, termasuk AS.

Dia hanya mempertanyakan para peneliti di WHO menggunakan sampel virus flu burung negara berkembang untuk keperluan vaksin atau mengembangkan senjata kimia.

Siti Fadilah meluncurkan buku tersebut pada 6 Februari 2008. Buku itu setebal 182 halaman. Isinya adalah perjuangan menghapus ketidakadilan mekanisme pertukaran sampel virus yang telah berjalan selama 50 tahun.

Mekanisme yang diprotes tersebut adalah negara-negara berkembang yang menyumbangkan virusnya kepada WHO tidak bisa meminta hasil penelitian dan tidak dapat mengetahui apa yang terjadi dengan virus yang dikirimkan.
http://www.detiknews.com/index.php/d...752/idkanal/10


AS Sangkal Pakai Sampel Virus Flu Burung RI untuk Senjata Biologi

Jakarta - Menkes Siti Fadilah Supari terkenal vokal berbicara ketidakadilan dalam pertukaran sampel virus penyebab penyakit mematikan, termasuk flu burung. Dalam buku yang baru saja diluncurkannya, dia menuduh AS dan WHO terlibat konspirasi melawan negara berkembang dalam menguasai sampel virus flu burung.

Terhadap tuduhan ini, AS jelas menyangkalnya. Sebagaimana dilansir harian terbitan Australia, The Age, edisi Kamis (21/2/2008), Jubir Deplu AS Susan Stahl membantah klaim Bu Menkes bahwa sampel virus flu burung Indonesia telah dikirim ke laboratorium senjata biologi di Los Alamos, New Mexico, AS.

"Laboratorium itu tidak memiliki virus flu burung dari Indonesia atau negara lainnya," ujar Stahl.

Siti Fadilah meluncurkan buku berjudul 'Saatnya Dunia Berubah! Tangan Tuhan di Balik Virus Flu Burung' pada Rabu 6 Februari 2008.

Buku ini menarik perhatian media Barat karena dalam buku itu Menkes menulis konspirasi AS dan WHO dalam penguasaan sampel virus flu burung yang dianggap Menkes tidak adil dan tidak transparan. Negara penyumbang sampel virus, termasuk Indonesia, kesulitan mengakses sampel yang telah disumbangkannya dan tidak tahu apa yang terjadi pada virus itu.

Vaksin yang didapat dari virus flu burung made in Indonesia tersebut, lalu dikembangkan negara-negara maju yang tidak menjadi korban flu burung dan menjualnya kepada negara berkembang yang menjadi korban. Dari koran asing yang dibacanya, Menkes mendapatkan informasi bahwa virus flu burung dikirim ke Los Alamos National Laboratory di New Mexico, AS.

Los Alamos ternyata berada di bawah Kementerian Energi AS. Di lab inilah duhulu dirancang bom atom Hiroshima. Lalu untuk apa data itu, untuk vaksin atau senjata kimia?

The Age menulis, Fadilah pada Rabu kemarin kembali menyatakan bahwa sampel virus flu burung Indonesia yang diberikan pada WHO telah dikirimkan ke laboratorium senjata biologi di Los Alamos."Apakah mereka menggunakan itu sebagai vaksin atau mengembangkan senjata kimia, semuanya tergantung pada kebutuhan dan kepentingan Pemerintah AS," kata Siti. "Ini sungguh situasi yang sangat berbahaya bagi kemanusiaan," imbuhnya.
http://www.detiknews.com/index.php/d...616/idkanal/10

[=NaNdA=]

^^ malah gw pernah denger dari wawancara salah satu stasiun TV
dengan Bu Mentri kl bu Mentri ditawari vaksin untuk senjata biologis...

dan senjata biologis itu cukup parah
katanya berbentuk spray yang kl dismprot ke tempat umum
contoh mal / pasar, efeknya bisa banyak yang meninggal!

Bu mentri diliatin lewat video waktu itu..
nah harga vaksinnya mahal banget...
kl ga bisa beli cash ditawarin utang..

gile separah itu ya dunia senjata biologis..

[=NaNdA=]

Yayasan Kanker Keluhkan Tayangan Pengobatan Alternatif
Minggu, 24 Pebruari 2008 | 18:26 WIB

TEMPO Interaktif, Jakarta:Yayasan Kanker Indonesia (YKI) mengeluhkan tayangan media massa menyangkut pengobatan alternatif penyakit kanker. Ketua Pendidikan dan Penyuluhan YKI Sumarjati Arjoso mengatakan tayangan tersebut mempengaruhi sikap masyarakat dalam pengobatan medis.

"Masyarakat jadi suku pergi ke alternatif," ujarnya kepada Tempo usai seminar dua hari 'Cancer Update 2008' dalam rangka Hari Kanker Sedunia/Indonesia World Cancer Day di Hotel Borobudur, Ahad (24/2).

Padahal, kata Sumarjati, tayangan-tayangan tersebut memberikan informasi yang keliru tantang kanker. "Masak ada yang mengatakan mengobati kanker lebih mudah daripada tumor," ujarnya. Selain itu, ada tayangan yang bisa memberikan pengobatan dari jauh. "Diagnosis kanker itu tidak mudah," ujarnya.

Menurut Sumarjati masyarakat juga kerap kali enggan melakukan pengobatan medis karena harganya mahal, kemoterapi yang mempunyai efek samping. Namun setelah melakukan pengobatan alternatif gagal, pasien kembali ke dokter dengan kanker stadium tiga dan empat. "Dengan pengobatan yang lebih mahal," ujarnya.

Menurut Sumarjati sudah banyak yang menjadi korban dari tayangan tersebut. "Ada tayangan yang bisa memindahkan penyakit ke kambing atau tanpa pisau, ini kan membodohi masyarakat," ujarnya. Sumarjati berharap media massa terutama televisi agar mencerdaskan masyarakat.
Iqbal Muhtarom