JAKARTA. House of Representatives (DPR) asked government to take serious action to prevent the spread of zika virus. Recently, Malaysia has confirmed the case of zika in the country.

Vice Chairman of Commission IX Saleh Partaonan Daulay said that Singapore had reported 185 cases of zika infection. Therefore, government should not be careless about the case.

Comission IX of DPR reminded Ministry of Health (MoH) to be serious in anticipating the spread of the virus in Indonesia that is transmitted primarily by Aedes aegypti mosquito.

Commission IX also urged government to prepare budget to counter zika virus. ”This is the new case. So far, MoH just allocated budget for handling other contagious diseases, not including zika virus,” Saleh said.

DPR also asked MoH to conduct special research on zika virus that involves health experts. So far, treatment, vaccine, and cure for zika have not yet been discovered. Saleh added, as a big country Indonesia should initiate the research. “Previously, MoH succeeded to conduct research on bird flu vaccine. We expect that MoH can do the similar research on the case of zika virus,” Saleh said.

MoH claimed that so far there is no zika case found in Indonesia. In order to prevent the spread of the virus, MoH has released travel advisory for Indonesian for travel to Singapore.

Aside of releasing travel advisory, MoH also instructed all Port Health Offices (KKP) and Regional Health Offices to conduct health check in order to anticipate the entry of zika virus to Indonesia via passengers who have visited countries that are infected with zika virus, like Brazil and Singapore.

Minister of Health Nila Farid Moeloek have instructed all passengers that just arrived in Indonesia to conduct the health test, which includes blood test and scanning of body temperature.  (Translator: Muhammad Farid)

Editor: Barratut Taqiyyah Rafie