Public Communication Cares For The Reduction Of PMK Cases, Task Force: Now There Are Only 14 Thousand Cases Left

Illustration of cattle exposed to oral and nail disease (PMK) was examined by medical officers. (Doc of Public Relations of the Ministry of Agriculture)

JAKARTA - Cases of mouth and nail disease (PMK) have fallen to 14,000 cases as of December 2022 since the establishment of the PMK Handling Task Force as public communication.

This was conveyed by the Data, IT, and Public Communication Coordinator of the PMK Task Force Abdul Muhari in an online discussion on the theme 'The Implementation of Data and Communications in PMK Handling in Indonesia' online, Wednesday, December 21.

"We provide information to the public that the handling of PMK shows results that are in line with expectations as of December from 640,000 cases at the beginning of the outbreak of PMK, now there are only around 14,000 cases," he said.

He explained that the presence of public communication in this PMK case was necessary to provide information directly from reliable sources to the public.

In addition, he continued, there was public communication from the PMK Task Force to inform that the government had measurable steps to tackle the virus that attacks these animals.

"Therefore, we form public communication so that the information needed by the community, especially what is planned by the government, can be conveyed and measurably evaluated the activities carried out," he said.

According to him, public communication is important to communicate messages of vigilance to the public against a potential disaster before it occurs to minimize the risks that will occur.

The goal is to control the situation so that news confusion does not occur so that it can present solutions to the community on developing issues.

"The purpose of crisis communication is a controlled situation so that it can really control the confusing news," he said.

He also said that the purpose of spreading massive information is for all levels of society who consume animal products or livestock actors themselves as the main target of establishing public communication.

Abdul said that the communication approach that was carried out interactively for farmers was easier to absorb information than narrativeally in the context of digitalization in today's era.

Therefore, the PMK Task Force team also took an approach such as making public service advertisements to ward off rumors that were not true among farmers and making Vlogs that immediately went to the community to provide an overview of the current conditions in handling PMK cases.

"We throw this information again on social media, journalists so that it rotates and we hope that farmers will need it," he said.