Indonesia is home to more than a quarter of a million people, spread across an archipelago made up of thousands of islands. This geographical reality is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it makes it very difficult to ensure every citizen gets equal access to health services. On the other, during an epidemic the government can keep the disease from spreading throughout the archipelago – if it has the right early-warning system
Three things are essential for a pandemic warning system to work well: timely recording and reporting of symptoms; accurate diagnoses, supported by swift examination and confirmation of cases; and an efficient disease-tracing system.
Indonesia has several early warning systems. The Early Warning and Response System (EWARS) tracks 23 types of infectious disease, such as pneumonia and influenza-like iIllnesses, that can become epidemics or outbreaks. It gets its data from weekly puskesmas (community health centre) reports. To detect increasing cases, EWARS draws on a disease diagnosis and response algorithm and an algorithm for outbreak response.
