Health Office Asks Teachers To Alert Parents To Acute Hepatitis, Monitor Children's Snacks At School

Illustration- 42 State Elementary School (SD) students again take part in limited face-to-face learning in Banda Aceh, Aceh (ANTARA)

ACEH - The Aceh Health Service (Dinkes) asked all parents and school teachers in their area to supervise children's snacks, both at school and at home to anticipate the spread of mysterious acute hepatitis.

“Children don't eat carelessly, they also choose to eat snacks at school. We invite all communities, including teachers, to monitor children's snacks at school or at home," said Head of the Aceh Health Office Hanif in Banda Aceh, Antara, Wednesday, May 18.

He said that Aceh had no reports of residents being infected with acute hepatitis, but this case has been detected in several other areas outside Aceh, such as on the island of Java. Basically, according to Hanif, all diseases are related to cleanliness.

The spread of cases of acute hepatitis is also almost the same as other diseases, which are influenced by lifestyle.

"During this COVID-19 we always keep clean, wear masks, wash our hands, the food we eat must also be really cooked, don't drink water carelessly, it must be maintained," he said.

Because, according to Hanif, the media for the spread of the virus in hepatitis can be from contaminated water, blood or food.

"The form of acute hepatitis is not yet clear, it is still under investigation. Hopefully this doesn't spread widely, we hope it is like that," he said.

Therefore, he said, the best effort to do at this time was preventive, by implementing a clean and healthy lifestyle. Moreover, according to Hanif, this disease attacks children under 15 years old.

Previously, the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) noted that currently there are 18 suspects with acute hepatitis with severe symptoms in Indonesia, where all of these suspects are known to not suffer from hepatitis A, B, C or D variants.

Until now, the Ministry of Health is also still monitoring the development of acute hepatitis to find out whether transmission can occur in adults.