'Field hospitals' may be needed for dengue sufferers<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Jakarta administration will build \"temporary
\nfield hospitals\" if existing facilities can no longer treat the
\ngrowing number of people infected with dengue fever, an official
\nsaid yesterday.<\/p>\n
Deputy Governor for Social Welfare Affairs Djailani said the
\nnumber of dengue fever sufferers admitted to hospitals and health
\ncenters increased by an average of 200 people per day.<\/p>\n
He said the field hospital concept would be realized by the
\nadministration in conjunction with the Armed Forces on vacant
\nland surrounding hospital complexes.<\/p>\n
\"The Armed Forces will provide tents, mattresses, (health)
\nequipment and also manpower.<\/p>\n
\"However, such hospitals will be built only if hospitals and
\nhealth centers really cannot accommodate patients. We have urged
\nhospitals to 'improvise' so that patients can be treated along
\nthe hospitals' corridors or any other available spaces.<\/p>\n
\"The field hospitals are the last option,\" he told reporters
\nafter launching a mass movement for eradicating the habitat of
\nAedes aegypti mosquitoes, the carriers of the dengue fever virus.<\/p>\n
Djailani said the administration hoped that residents would
\nparticipate in the mass movement not only once but every Sunday
\nso \"the peak of the outbreak predicted to take place in May or
\nJune won't be realized\".<\/p>\n
\"So don't give the mosquitoes a chance to lay their eggs, let
\nalone breed.\"<\/p>\n
Patients<\/p>\n
At state-owned Persahabatan Hospital, in East Jakarta, no
\nrooms were available yesterday but 10 new patients were being
\ntreated in the emergency room. Patients are temporarily
\naccommodated in the hospitals' corridors rather than turned away.<\/p>\n
A couple were seen rushing their baby to the emergency room as
\nsoon as medical staff at a clinic in East Jakarta declared that
\nthe infant, Ardian, had been infected.<\/p>\n
\"The clinic recommended that Ardian be treated here,\" Diana,
\nthe mother, said.<\/p>\n
About 10 people from her neighborhood in Cakung, East Jakarta,
\nhad been infected.<\/p>\n
\"The neighborhood has not been fumigated yet,\" she said.<\/p>\n
After learning that no more rooms were available for her 10-
\nmonth-old baby, she said: \"I don't care if Ardian is treated in
\ncorridors or wherever, what's important is that he is saved.\"<\/p>\n
More than 10 people waited at a counter for their relatives'
\nblood test results yesterday. One woman was forced to wait for
\nthree hours for the results, while others waited for up to two
\nhours.<\/p>\n
\"You see... if there is only one staff member to serve us,
\nhow can we get the result immediately?\" one patient said.<\/p>\n
In the children's wards, so many patients were being treated
\nin the corridors that it was no longer easy to pass by. Some
\nchildren were also treated in the adult wards.<\/p>\n
Ernawati, the mother of a nine-year-old patient, Nurdiansyah,
\nwho is being treated in one of the hospital's corridors, said: \"I
\nknow that all hospitals are full of dengue fever patients.<\/p>\n
\"I hope that the tariffs will be cheaper than being treated in
\nthe rooms,\" she said while fanning Nurdiansyah, who was laying
\ndown on a mattress.<\/p>\n
There was a similar sight at the Indonesian Christian
\nUniversity's hospital in East Jakarta and other hospitals
\nthroughout the city.<\/p>\n
To cope with the lack of rooms, the city administration
\ndonated last week 30 mattresses to the hospital.<\/p>\n
Governor Sutiyoso promised Friday that the administration
\nwould send mattresses to hospitals which had no more rooms to
\ntreat dengue fever patients.<\/p>\n
The administration received 300 mattresses from Jakarta
\nMilitary Command and another 350 from National Police
\nHeadquarters last week.<\/p>\n
The number of people affected by the fever this year climbed
\nto 5,860 as of Friday, with the city's death toll reaching 54.<\/p>\n
Head of the City Health Agency Aslan Lasman urged public
\nhealth centers not to be too bureaucratic in their distributing
\nof Abate powder, which is used to stem the Aedes aegypti
\nmosquitoes's life cycle.<\/p>\n
\"The powder should be distributed freely to people who need
\nit, don't be too bureaucratic. But people should be informed that
\nthe powder should only be spread in places which are routinely
\ncleaned.\" (ind)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/field-hospitals-may-be-needed-for-dengue-sufferers-1447893297",
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