Indonesia on alert of swine flu

A thermal scanner is installed in the arrival terminal to check the temperature of arriving passengers at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar in Indonesia's resort island of Bali April 27, 2009. Countries around the world have moved to contain the spread of a possible pandemic after a new swine flu outbreak killed 103 people in Mexico.(Xinhua/AFP Photo)

Indonesian Health Ministry has warned to be cautious over the possibility of swine flu outbreak in the country following a series of death caused by the virus in the United States and Mexico, Health Minister Siti Fadilah Sufari said on Monday.

The country temporarily halted pork import, the Indonesian Coordinating Minister of People Welfare and Poverty Alleviation Aburizal Bakrie said, but Minister Supari said that it was still not necessary yet to cull pigs in the country.

"We must be careful and cautious," she said at Aburizal's office.

The health minister said that the government, which has been long experiencing in dealing with bird flu, had been ready to prevent the possible spread of the disease, as the medicine for the disease was similar with that for the avian influenza.

Many Indonesian raise pigs with back-yard farm way nationwide.

Swine flu is resulted by influenza subtype A variant H1N1, commonly conducted by animals, mostly pigs, with a possibility for transmission among humans. 　

Thermal scanners are installed in the arrival terminal to check the temperature of arriving passengers at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar in Indonesia's resort island of Bali April 27, 2009. Countries around the world have moved to contain the spread of a possible pandemic after a new swine flu outbreak killed 103 people in Mexico.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)