$180m needed to curb 'chikungunya'<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Health Minister Achmad Sujudi says that his ministry needs Rp 1.6
\ntrillion (about US$180 million) to exterminate Aedes albopictus
\nmosquitoes, the carriers of chikungunya disease.<\/p>\n
Briefing the press after installing nine new officials at the
\nMinistry of Health on Wednesday, Sujudi said that the budget
\nwould be used to pay 70,000 communicable disease officials in
\n70,000 villages across the country.<\/p>\n
Since January, chikungunya has spread in eight provinces,
\ninfecting thousands of people.<\/p>\n
\"It's a one-year budget and we will use it to pay the
\nofficials whose task, among others, is to encourage communities
\nin villages to actively participate in exterminating the
\nmosquitoes,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Achmad said that he expected local administrations would have
\nenough funds to pay one official for every village.<\/p>\n
In a phone interview with The Jakarta Post, Director General
\nof Communicable Diseases Umar Fahmi Achmadi said that to his
\nknowledge, the budget would be used for eradicating not only
\nchikungunya but also other communicable diseases, such as
\nleprosy, malaria, tuberculosis and dengue fever.<\/p>\n
\"We have medicine for the diseases but we cannot give them to
\npatients who cannot reach doctors due to distance from health
\nfacilities. So, we plan to recruit some more trained officials to
\ncontrol communicable diseases in villages,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The steps for preventing the spread of chikungunya mosquitoes,
\nhe said, were similar to those taken for eradicating dengue fever
\nmosquitoes that breed in clean water. They were cleaning the
\nsurrounding environment from still pools of water, tightly
\ncovering water tanks, and putting Abate powder into water tanks.<\/p>",
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"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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