REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, DENPASAR -- Bali's airport has set up a thermoscanner to detect body temperature in anticipation of the spread of Zika virus. The equipment has been installed at the international arrival terminal.
"We have prepared a body temperature detector. So far, no passenger arriving at the airport has been found having high body temperature," head of the health services at the port, Lucky Tjahyono, said here on Wednesday (31/8).
The port's health service is also undertaking special monitoring and detection for any possible diseases, scanning the arriving passengers, especially those from Singapore where the virus has spread.
Due to the high frequency of flights arriving from that country, the health service is on high alert. If a passenger is found having a high body temperature, he/she would be quarantined before being sent to a hospital, he stressed.
He said his office has cooperated with the Port Authority 4th Region of Bali and Nusa Tenggara, port operator Angkasa Pura I, and other agencies to anticipate and act against the spread of the virus.
WHO said 60 countries in the world have been affected by the virus and 46 of them have declared zika as an extraordinary one. Lucky noted that the deployment of body temperature detector device at the entry gate was a preventive action although Bali and Indonesia have not yet been included as places contaminated by the virus.
The government has called on the people to maintain their environmental health by drying water containers, covering water pools, burying used articles, and preventing mosquito bites by using a screen while sleeping or applying mosquito repellent.
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