Government Asked Not To Underestimate Death Reports Related To Oz Virus

JAKARTA - Director of Postgraduates at YARSI University, Prof. Tjandra Yoga Aditama, appealed to the Indonesian government not to underestimate reports of deaths caused by the Oz Virus as happened in Japan some time ago.

"We must not underestimate reports of new diseases, but also don't worry too much. Don't make conclusions too quickly, because scientific data is not yet fully available," he said as quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday, June 27.

The Professor of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Indonesia (FK-UI) said that from time to time there were always reports of new types of diseases from various countries.

When a new case or death was first discovered, the immediate action was to examine in detail the impact of transmission both in terms of clinical and epidemiological aspects along with experts.

It's just that at the beginning, there must be no definite scientific explanation.

"That's why, what we need to do now is follow deeply the development of scientific data about this case, of course from sources that are trusted in at least two forms, namely an official statement from a state or world agency," he said.

Other trusted sources that the government and the public can follow, he said, are the results of research published officially, not in chain Whatsapp (WA) messages without clear sources.

In addition, whether or not there is a new disease, said Prof. Tjandra, in general the government must maintain and ensure that surveillance always runs well, at least in three forms, namely symptom-based surveillance, laboratory-based surveillance, and even up to the genomic stage.

"Meanwhile, the scope of surveillance that needs to be considered is clinical surveillance in patients, epidemiological surveillance in communities, surveillance of animals that may have an impact on human health and surveillance of environmental conditions that may have an impact on human health," said the former Director of Infectious Diseases of WHO Southeast Asia.

Separately confirmed the Director General of Disease Prevention and Control (P2P) of the Ministry of Health, Maxi Rein Rondonuwu, stated that cases of human death due to the Oz Virus have not been found in Indonesia to this day.

However, he appealed to all parties to understand that the Oz Virus is a new member of the genus Thomotovirus. This virus was first isolated from a collection of threenimfa Amblyomma testudinariums collected in Ehime Prefecture, Japan in 2018.

The virus is known to have zoonosis properties or is transmitted through animals, which are usually wild animals such as monkeys, deer and mice to humans.

"So when the autovirus hits the human body, it can cause inflammation of the brain (encephalitis), fever, pneumonia, and death. However, the way of transmission to humans is not yet known for sure, the possibility of infection from the bite of the tick that carries the virus," said Maxi.