Arif admitted that the blood samples taken by his group are not representative enough to detect a disease outbreak in the community. Ideally, 10 blood samples should be taken from each village.
“The blood samples we took are not ideal, but we hope the laboratory results can serve as an early warning to the government,” he explained. In addition to taking blood samples, Arif and his group also found 15-25 people in one village with fever.
Arif said the number could still increase considering there are three villages in the inner Baduy and 65 villages in the outer Baduy communities. “One village can have 15-25 people with fever. It can be hundreds if the health screenings are expanded. It can be quite overwhelming,” he said.
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He hopes that the government will be more serious in providing health services for its citizens, including healthcare education, especially on SKTM (cards held by residents that are recognized by the administration to be living in poverty) and universal health coverage scheme BPJS Kesehatan. (rr)