Singaporean Flu Strikes Depok
Wednesday, 15 April, 2009 | 12:37 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Depok:The Singaporean flu or the Enterovirus coxsackie is spreading around Depok city. Eight children aged one to four years old have been infected. “The flu is infecting children who are living in the same block,” said Sukmajaya health center chief, Linda Patrisia, yesterday.

Linda said the patients reside in the Bella Cassa housing complex block D in Tirtajaya, Sukmajaya. The symptoms of the flu, also known as the foot, hand, and mouth disease, include high temperature to 38 – 39 degrees Celsius, coughing, vomiting, and red dots around the foot, hand, and mouth. “These children have been cured,” Linda said.

Chief of Depok Health Office in charge of Disease Control and Environmental Health, Ani Rubiani, said it is difficult to determine the source of the infection. One of the patient’s parent in fact often travels to Singapore, but, “It doesn’t mean the first child to catch the virus is that person’s child,” she said.

According to Ani, the vaccine for this disease is not yet available. The virus tends to attack 10-year old children through dirt, body liquid and physical contact. Different from the avian flu and SARS, this kind of virus determines the disease’s level of seriousness. The H5NI virus (cause of the avian flu) is a serious virus which requires its patient to have special treatment.

The avian flu is spread by fowl to humans and attacks the bronchial tubes. Meanwhile, the Singaporean flu breeds in the digestion tracts. As such, the patients do not normally cough or have a cold. Instead, they get high temperature, lose their appetite, have difficulty in swallowing, and develop rashes in their mouth.

Ani confirmed there are dangerous Singaporean flu viruses, but the one spread in Depok is considered mild. The virus can be dealt with by increasing immunity, which is by consuming a healthy diet.

Jakarta is on the alert against the Singaporean flu attack even though there have been no reports of infections in the capital city. “Health centers throughout Jakarta are on the alert,” confirmed Jakarta Health Office spokesperson, Tini Suryanti, yesterday.

Tini explained that the disease is not the first to hit Jakarta. Last year, two cases emerged in South Jakarta. Normally the patients are infected after they return from their holidays in Singapore. In 2004, a massive Singaporean flu infection took place in South Jakarta after some international school students were infected by the virus. “The school had to be temporarily closed for sterilization.”

The Singaporean flu virus spreads rapidly with only a week of incubation period. Infection can happen through spits, breathing, even when a person touches an object that was previously touched by a patient. “If the patient wanders around, the whole complex can be infected in a day.” In order to deal with this issue, the Health Office will isolate and sterilize the area near the afflicted people.


JOBPIE S | SOFIAN | TIA HAPSARI