Aviation Medicine Capacity on Facing Biological Threat in Indonesia Airports

Airports need high security procedures, especially for preventing outbreaks of infectious diseases spread by passenger and carried goods. Outbreaks of disease form real threat to national defense that can endanger national sovereignty, territorial integrity and national security. Biological agents that are dangerous sources of outbreaks infectious diseases can be spread by criminal and terrorists for biological warfare. Based on data, the spread of diseases in Indonesia came from abroad, such as SARS from China, Mers-CoV from the Middle East, Avian Influenza from China, HIV from Africa etc. Indonesia has a population of more than 262 million peoples, 17,500 islands, and climate conditions that allow microorganisms to grow well. In 2017 domestic flights transported 95,401,545 persons and international flights 16,253,259 persons, we need to prevent the spread of diseases in Indonesia entering through the Airports. Efforts to prevent the entry of dangerous biological agents in Indonesia were carried out by Quarantine Officers and Port Health Officers. The development of threat outbreak disease in air transportation is real in the future, so all Indonesia airports must have action plans to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. The Air Force must act as guardian of sovereignty by having medical personnel on the spot for role interoperability with the personnel Port Health Office for prevent the entry of dangerous biological agents. Capacity building need for be enhanced for prevention, detection, identification and response through a training of the personnel, procurement facilities for readiness prevent, detect and respond when facing biological threat.