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JAKARTA - Indonesia suspended pork imports and increased body temperature scanners at airports Monday as senior officials tried to calm fears that swine flu had spread to the country.
Senior ministers met to discuss the threat of swine flu after it killed more than 100 people in Mexico and spread rapidly to other countries, sparking fears of a pandemic.
"Indonesia has decided to stop all imports of live pigs and pork temporarily as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of the virus here," said the government's pandemic preparedness chief, Bayu Krisnamurthi.
Transport ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan said additional measures would be taken at airports to screen passengers for signs of the flu.
"In response to the swine flu, we are installing thermoscanners at 10 airports to detect ill travellers entering Indonesia," he said.
Until now Indonesia had operated such scanners only at the airport on the resort island of Bali, as a precaution against SARS and bird flu.
Passengers arriving from the Americas would be asked to fill up special health cards stating details of their medical histories and countries they had recently visited, Ervan said.
Indonesia is the country worst hit by avian influenza, or bird flu, with 115 confirmed human deaths since 2003.
Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari, whose refusal to share bird flu viral samples with international vaccine researchers has stirred controversy, said Indonesians should not panic as swine flu had not affected tropical countries.
"It takes place during autumn and winter. Our country is always hot. Don't panic," she told Detikcom news agency.
Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie said the government had learned lessons from its fight against bird flu which would serve it well in the event of a swine flu outbreak.
"Our ability to manage bird flu epidemics can also be used to anticipate the spread of other diseases such as swine flu," he was quoted as saying by the state-run Antara news agency.
Officials had no figures for imports of pigs and pork products to Indonesia but said they were "not significant." Ninety per cent of Indonesia's 234 million people are Muslims who generally do not eat pork.
- AFP/ir
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