Health officials move to curb malaria outbreak<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The Health Office of the regency of Banyumas, Central Java,
\nfinally responded to the reports of a massive malaria epidemic by
\nconducting on Monday several blood tests and treatment for anyone
\nsuffering from malaria in the five districts hit hardest by the
\nillness.<\/p>\n
The belated measures were finally taken by the regency health
\noffice following the (regency) Legislative Council's threat to
\nfire the head of the regency Health Office Choerul Mufid for
\nfailing to prevent or respond to reports that 54 people had died
\nin the last month and as many as 10,000 are infected.<\/p>\n
The head of Sumpiuh Public Health Center, Drajat, said on
\nMonday that besides conducting blood tests and communal treatment
\nthe health office also took some mosquito abatement measures in
\nthe area. \"The team of paramedics also distributed preventive
\nmedicine such as Chloroquine and Abate powder to the residents.\"<\/p>\n
The Abate powder is used to kill the larvae of mosquitoes in
\nwater tanks and puddles.<\/p>\n
The Banyumas regency, located in Central Java (previously
\nreported erroneously) has five districts; Sumpiuh, Kemranjen,
\nTambak, Somagede and Banyumas.<\/p>\n
Data from Sumpiuh district head M. Najib dated Jan. 5, 2001
\nstated that 19 people in three villages, Bogangin, Banjar Paneten
\nand Ketanda died from malaria in December.<\/p>\n
Last week, the head of Karangginntung village in the district
\nof Kemranjen reported that 27 villagers had died from illnesses
\nwith symptoms that are similar to that of malaria, chills and
\nfever, but no medical exams were carried out.<\/p>\n
The regency legislative council also revealed early this month
\nthat eight people in the village of Watu Agung in the Tambak
\ndistrict had died from malaria. More than 8,000 people currently
\nsuffer from malaria, according to their report.<\/p>\n
The head of the provincial Health Office, Krishna Jaya flatly
\ndenied the reports on Monday, telling reporters in Semarang that
\nonly one person had died of malaria in Banyumas regency.<\/p>\n
\"Malaria is endemic in Central Java. But so far we found only
\none of 21 patients died from malaria falciparum. The other
\n20 were suffering from malaria vivax which is less dangerous,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Malaria is a serious illness transmitted by the \"bite\" of the
\nfemale Anopheles mosquito which has parasitic protozoa of the
\ngenus plasmodium falciparum, plasmodium malariae, plasmodium
\nvivax. All these types attack red blood cells.<\/p>\n
Krishna claimed that blood tests on the 287 villagers of
\nKetanda in Sumpiuh showed that 128 of the villagers had malaria,
\nmostly caused by the vivax plasmodium. \"The blood tests were
\nperformed by the provincial team as Banyumas has no experts in
\nsuch matters,\" he said, while not revealing when the tests took
\nplace.<\/p>\n
Records from the hospitals showed that there had been 33
\nmalaria patients, and \"only one of them died,\" Krishna
\nreiterated.<\/p>\n
Records made by the provincial Health Office indicate that
\nthere were 40,568 malaria cases in the province, or 55,359 less
\nthan the previous year.<\/p>\n
Malaria is also endemic in the regencies of Purworejo,
\nMagelang, Kebumen, Banjarnegara, Cilacap and Wonosobo in Central
\nJava.<\/p>\n
In Jakarta Director General of Eradication of Contagious
\nDisease and Environmental Health Umar Fahmi Achmadi said that
\npeople's mobility from one island to another in the country had
\nincreased the spread of the disease. \"Two-thirds of the country
\nhas been declared malarial.\"<\/p>\n
\"The prolonged economic crisis has lessened the government's
\nability to afford medication and insecticide to prevent the
\nspread of malaria,\" he said. \"The resistance against the existing
\nmedicines may also contribute to this revival of malaria.\"<\/p>\n
Umar said in August of last year that, with the exception of
\nJakarta, all provinces in the country had areas vulnerable to
\nmalaria, with Irian Jaya at the top followed by Maluku and East
\nNusa Tenggara.<\/p>\n
In 1959 then-president Sukarno officially launched the use of
\nthe chemical DDT (chlorophenothane, dicophane) to eradicate
\nmalaria, by symbolically spraying the powerful insecticide at
\nhouses in Kalasan, Yogyakarta.<\/p>\n
After 1959 the number of malarial cases in Java, Bali and the
\nisland of Madura gradually dropped. The \"golden age\" of DDT was
\nin 1963 when almost 64 million people living in malarial areas in
\nJava and Lampung were reportedly saved by house-to-house
\nspraying.<\/p>\n
The number of malarial cases went up again in 1967. Observers
\nblamed the political situation (Indonesian Communist Party's coup
\nwas in 1965, followed by the New Order) and perhaps the Anopheles
\nmosquito's resistance against DDT in Central and East Java for
\nthis.<\/p>\n
DDT has also been known to cause cancer and birth defects.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/health-officials-move-to-curb-malaria-outbreak-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }