"Of the 25 provinces affected or infected with FMD, 12 of them, or 48 percent, have reported zero cases, meaning that they have not reported (any transmission cases)," the task force's coordinator, Wiku Adisasmito, stated at the FMD national coordination meeting here on Wednesday.
According to Adisasmito, out of the 309 districts and cities where the disease spread, 172, or 55.7 percent of them, had reported zero cases.
However, he stated that the condition of zero cases did not mean that the FMD disease had disappeared in the affected region.
"We want to ensure that more districts and cities remain uninfected, and those infected should be able to report zero cases," he affirmed.
In order to realize this, Adisasmito reminded that it is important to implement the five main strategies of biosecurity, vaccination, testing, treatment, and conditional slaughter for handling FMD.
"What we prioritize is to control the cases. Then, with passage of time and the program being carried out massively, Indonesia is expected to be free of FMD, but this takes time," he explained.
Adisasmito stated that no farm animals had been re-infected.
"The virus can exist, but if the vaccination is conducted well, then the transmission should be lower," he noted.
Based on data from the FMD Handling Task Force on November 22, 2022, five provinces with the highest number of active FMD cases are Central Java, with 16,439 cases; East Java, with 8,950 cases; West Nusa Tenggara, with 7,508 cases; Yogyakarta, with 3,979 cases; and South Sulawesi, with 3,178 cases.
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Translator: Suci N, Kenzu
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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