Ministry cautions tourists against Eastern Indonesia for malaria

Published on : Friday, April 21, 2017

The Health Ministry has cautioned the tourists against planning trips to the eastern portion of Indonesia with an aim to make them aware of the malaria infection in the region.

The official statistics of the ministry states that malaria is highly endemic in the regions of West Papua, Papua, North Maluku and East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) provinces.

Vensya Sitohang, the ministry’s director of zoonotic and vector infection disease prevention control said that the tourists, particularly backpackers need to anticipate and take the appropriate measurements against the disease. For instance, it advises people against venturing outdoors at night as the anopheles mosquito is known to be more active during that point of time.

If anybody needs to travel at night, or after darkness descends, a mosquito repellant should be applied while they are asleep.

But, for people who are already bitten, they are required to visit health services and conduct laboratory checks in order to detect malaria. Tourists are also asked to take antimalarial medications before commencing with their trips that are available absolutely for free in hospitals and other health facilities.

West Papua and NTT are presently among the nation’s most popular travel locales with highlights like Labuan Bajo and Raja Ampat.