JAKARTA - The Ministry of Health is strengthening health care facilities to deal with cases of acute hepatitis with severe symptoms of unknown cause in children.
"Strengthening health service facilities (fasyankes) with referral hospitals for handling severe acute hepatitis cases, such as the Sulianti Saroso Infectious Disease Hospital (RSPI) in Jakarta," said Siti Nadia Tarmizi, quoted by Antara, Friday, May 6.
Efforts to strengthen health facilities in all regions are a strategic step for the government to prevent the spread of acute hepatitis cases.
"Including laboratory tests to establish a definite diagnosis related to the cause of this severe acute hepatitis," he said.
The Ministry of Health has appointed the Laboratory of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Indonesia (FKUI) as a reference laboratory for the examination of acute hepatitis specimens.
In addition, the Ministry of Health has also sent a letter of vigilance to the provincial and district/city Health Offices, namely Circular Letter Number HK.02.02/C/2515/2022 concerning Precautions for the Discovery of Acute Hepatitis Cases of Unknown Etiology.
According to Nadia, efforts are needed to increase awareness, prevention, and control of acute hepatitis infections in children. The hope is that every case that has symptoms similar to that of mysterious acute hepatitis will be reported immediately.
Lead Scientist for acute hepatitis, Hanifa Oswari, said that people should be vigilant, but not panic in the face of mysterious hepatitis.
"If you are sick, especially if you have gastrointestinal symptoms, such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain with low-grade fever, be careful this can lead to severe allergies," he said.
People with these symptoms are advised to immediately seek medical help to find out whether further examination is needed or not, so that the medical team can find cases as early as possible and treat them optimally.
"The Ministry of Health and its ranks and experts have been mobilized to solve this problem together," he said.
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