10m suffer from elephant foot: Govt

MENTAWAI, North Sumatra: At least 10 million Indonesians suffer from the elephant foot syndrome, making the country the third worst-hit by elephantiasis after India and China.

Ministry of Health director general for contagious diseases Muhammad Yasin said over the weekend that 6,500 of the 10 million people were had developed chronic elephantiasis.

He said the government had launched free medication programs aimed at reducing the number of people suffering from the disease to around one percent of the population by 2009. -- Antara