Hepatitis Has No Chance of Becoming a Pandemic

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The world was shocked by the discovery of mysterious acute hepatitis that quickly spread to several countries including Indonesia. Fortunately, the Spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, Dr. Siti Nadia Tarmizi, said that acute hepatitis had no chance of becoming a pandemic. This is because the spread of cases globally is moving slowly.

The Ministry of Health said that all cases of hepatitis were “probable” mysterious acute hepatitis.

“There is no chance of a pandemic if you look at the development of the number of cases and so far only six countries have reported acute hepatitis with the number of cases of more than six patients,” She said when confirmed in Jakarta, Wednesday.

Nadia continued, “While the total global cases of probable acute hepatitis are 348 with 70 additional cases still under investigation.”

Recently, cases of suspected mysterious hepatitis in Indonesia increased to 18 people. The spokesperson for the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia, Dr. Siti Nadia Tarmizi, confirmed two new cases of death suspected to be mysterious hepatitis as of Thursday (12/5/2022).

The two cases came from DKI and East Kalimantan. Both are children under the age of 10.

“So there are four who died from DKI Jakarta, 1 from West Sumatra, 1 from East Kalimantan, and 1 from East Java,” said Dr. Nadia

Dr. Nadia clarified that the deaths from Bangka Belitung and North Sumatra were not related to mysterious acute hepatitis, bringing the total number of patients who died to seven people outside of the report.

On the other hand, the former Director of Infectious Diseases of WHO Southeast Asia, Prof. Tjandra Yoga Aditama, said that a preliminary study from the WHO was needed to state the possibility of acute hepatitis becoming a pandemic.

“About the possibility of any disease becoming a pandemic, it will first go through a process to be determined as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC),” he said.

He said PHEIC will measure several barometers of pandemic status, including the spread of diseases across continents, causing significant health problems and new types of disease.

“After that, we will look at the progress again, if it continues to spread, it will only be called a pandemic,” he said.

If traced from the previous Covid-19 pandemic, the virus was first reported by WHO on January 5, 2020, declared PHEIC on January 31, 2020, and declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020.