Prof Tjandra Yoga: Mysterious Acute Hepatitis Appears, Massive Surveillance Needs To Be Done

UNSPLASH ILLUSTRATION

JAKARTA - Health expert who is also the former Director of WHO Southeast Asia, Prof. Tjandra Yoga Aditama, supports the government's efforts to conduct massive surveillance of the mysterious hepatitis disease in children.

"Surveillance must be carried out. WHO has provided criteria that cases of probable acute hepatitis have severe symptoms if child patients under the age of 16 are not found to have hepatitis A, B, C, D or E," said Tjandra Yoga Aditama, quoted by Antara, Friday, May 6.

Tjandra said Extraordinary Events (KLB) of acute hepatitis with severe symptoms so far do not have a medically confirmed definition, because the exact cause is not known. While probable status is a series of diagnoses before the confirmed status of the patient is enforced.

Tjandra gave an example, reports of three children in Jakarta who died suspected of being infected with severe acute hepatitis cannot be said to be probable cases, because it has not been proven in the laboratory there is a negative possibility of being infected with hepatitis A, B, C, D or E.

"Because if one of them is positive, it could be old hepatitis (hepatitis A, B, C, D, E)," he said.

According to Tjandra, acute hepatitis has actually existed for a long time in the world, including in Indonesia, but in very few or rare cases. Even with cases of negative hepatitis A, B, C, D and E, especially in developed countries.

"In the UK they have been able to detect negative cases of hepatitis AE. Suddenly in the UK the cases are rare, so many. That is what triggers the current global situation," he said.

Tjandra, who is also the former Director General of Disease Control at the Indonesian Ministry of Health, said that the phenomenon of the mysterious spread of hepatitis in the world that is happening today is due to the influence of advanced medical technology to support new disease surveillance efforts in the community.

"Because all diseases do not recognize passports or flight schedules. They can spread. If we want to investigate, it is possible that the disease spreads everywhere, it is a phenomenon that is handled in the field of infectious diseases," he said.

Previously in a virtual press statement, Thursday (5/5), Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture (Menko PMK) Muhadjir Effendy encouraged massive efforts to track acute hepatitis with severe symptoms in every area to ensure the spread of cases.

"We are not bad if we are more offensive. So, we don't have to wait, but proactively conduct large-scale sweeps in every area to ensure that acute hepatitis has not spread everywhere," he said.

Muhadjir said that case tracking efforts in each area are expected to provide opportunities for relevant authorities and medical personnel in efforts to prevent disease early.