Emerging diseases in Indonesia

Indonesia has a large area and a very large population. There are also many types of emerging diseases in Indonesia. I will tell you about 2 emerging diseases that I often encountered before the Covid-19 pandemic. I worked as medical doctor in North Sulawesi, one of Indonesian places appointed to focus on emerging diseases: malaria and rabies.

Malaria is a disease that is easily found in North Sulawesi. Patients with fever will tend to be suspected of being malaria patients. The environment there is suitable as a breeding ground for mosquitoes because there are still many areas with dense vegetation. Also supported by high rainfall so that it is easy to find pools of water.

Rabies can be transmitted from various animals to human. However, in North Sulawesi, it is common to find rabies transmission from dogs. As an area that is dominated by Christians, there are many dogs, both domesticated and stray dogs. Rabies vaccinations for dogs there are still low. There are several cases of death of rabies patients, but they seem to have started to be controlled, because anti-rabies serum is quite easy to find there.