Ministry Of Health: There Are Already 14 Suspected Cases Of Acute Hepatitis In Indonesia

Illustration - Hepatitis disease. ANTARA/HO-RSUD Bogor City.

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Health noted that so far there have been 14 suspected cases of mysterious acute hepatitis in Indonesia. This is recorded in the Ministry of Health's data collection as of May 17, 2022.

Director of the Sulianti Saroso Infection Center Hospital (RSPI), Mohammad Syahril said, of the suspected cases of acute hepatitis, 1 case was probable and 13 cases were pending classification.

"The distribution of the provinces is in North Sumatra (1 pending), West Sumatra (1 pending), Jambi (1 pending), DKI Jakarta (1 probable and 1 pending), and East Java 3 pending)," said Syahril in a virtual press conference, Wednesday, May 18th.

Syahril said that of the 14 suspected cases of acute hepatitis, 9 patients were male and 5 female patients. In terms of age group, 7 patients were 5-7 years old, 2 patients were 6-10 years old, and 5 patients were 11-16 years old.

"So far, 6 patients have died, 4 are still being treated, while 4 have been discharged or recovered," he said.

In addition, Syahril said there were 13 cases that were categorized as discarded or excluded from cases of suspected acute hepatitis.

The current number of cases represents the change in the number of cases from the previous day. Syahril explained, there was a reduction in cases in the probable category and additional cases in the pending category.

"The reduction in cases was because it turned out that, after the last examination, he had sepsis due to bacteria, so he was removed. Then there were 2 additional cases, new reports are pending," said Syahril.

As is known, the first case of suspected acute hepatitis (AE hepatitis) was reported in the UK on 5 April. To date, there are 27 countries with 436 cases recorded in WHO reporting cases of acute hepatitis.

To date, there have been no confirmed cases of acute hepatitis. In the classification, there are several categories of cases. Among them, probable cases which are suspected cases of acute hepatitis with age under 16 years, SGOT or SGPT above 500 IU per liter.

Then the epi-linked case is a suspected case of acute hepatitis with all ages category and has close contact with a probable case.

Pending classification cases are cases that are waiting for the results of laboratory tests for acute hepatitis with SGOT or SGPT above 500 IU per liter. Meanwhile, discarded cases are cases that are excluded from the category of probable, epi-linked, and probable.