Jakarta (ANTARA) – Member of the IDAI Tropical Disease Infection Coordination Work Unit, Prof. Dr. Dr. Dominicus Husada, Sp.A Subsp.IPT said that clean and healthy living behavior (PHBS) could be the best way to reduce the transmission of the nipah virus, for which there is currently no vaccination.
“In general, PHBS applies universally. The point is to clean everything that sticks to it, which is not from us, washing your hands with running water is the best, using soap,” said Dominicus in a presentation at a webinar with IDAI which was attended in Jakarta, Thursday.
Dominicus said that in certain situations there is no water, no soap, the alternative is to use glycerin alcohol.
He said that PHBS habits need to be improved again and carried out every time when carrying out activities such as consuming something or after contact with other people.
PHBS can be done using hand cleaning tools that are widely available nowadays, such as hand sanitizers, which make it easier if there is no clean water. If you get used to it, it will be very good at preventing various infectious and viral diseases.
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The Professor of Pediatrics, Airlangga University, Surabaya, said that PHBS can also be applied to food that will be consumed by washing it thoroughly to prevent the attachment of viruses, especially the nipah virus, in contaminated animal saliva which may stick to food and hands.
“If you wash your hands with running water and soap, your saliva will be clean. That’s the risk of getting nipah or not. This doesn’t apply to Ebola, luckily we don’t have Ebola. For Ebola, even if you wash your hands well, it won’t necessarily prevent it. But nipah can. So, I think if we wash our hands well, it won’t get us,” said Dominicus.
Dominicus said that currently the nipah vaccination phase trial is still undergoing its second phase, which is being carried out in Oxford, England, and it will still take around three or five years before this vaccine can be used on humans.
In Indonesia, existing vaccines circulating in the community have not been proven to have a preventive effect against the Nipah virus.
He also said that the incubation period for the nipah virus takes 4-12 days from the entry of the virus, and during this period it is necessary to pay attention to the symptoms that appear starting from flu, fever, headache and muscle pain, vomiting.
There are also two serious symptoms mainly in the nervous system due to brain infection which causes decreased consciousness and attacks the respiratory system with signs of shortness of breath due to pneumonia with a fairly high mortality rate.
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Also read: Steps that can be taken to prevent transmission of the Nipah virus
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Reporter: Fitra Ashari
Editor: Mahmudah
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