Early Detection of Body Temperature with Infrared Technology for Prevention of Endemic Outbreaks of Primary School Age Infectious Diseases

Abstract

Initial detection of body temperature with infrared technology is currently only used for diagnosis of an infectious disease, but has not been used as a parameter to prevent disease transmission, resulting in an increase in the rate of disease transmission. The use of a device to measure the increase in body temperature of school pupils, namely the mercury thermometer, requires physical contact or contact with the body between the gauge, the measured school student and the measuring instrument, and requires a long time, so that it will interfere with learning activities at school. Physical contact when using a mercury thermometer can potentially be a medium for disease transmission. This study aims to analyze the effect of students whose body temperature is above normal who do not attend school on preventing the transmission of infectious disease and the effectiveness and accuracy of an infrared thermometer in comparison with a digital thermometer. The research design was a cross sectional or crosssectional study, where measurements were only carried out once at a time for a population in the school. The sample to be given treatment came from grade V students with a total of 40 students from 4 classes totaling 146 students. From data testing using SPSS, it was found that the use of an infrared thermometer was effective almost 100% in preventing outbreaks of transmission of infectious diseases in elementary school-aged students. The infrared thermometer is easy to operate and gives students a sense of security and comfort. So that early detection of body temperature with infrared technology for the prevention of endemic outbreaks of infectious diseases in elementary school children is highly recommended.