Another crisis: Dengue fever

Another crisis: Dengue fever

Dengue fever is no stranger to Indonesia, but this year's
outbreak is said to be one of the most serious in recent history.
At least 12 provinces are currently being affected by this killer
disease. The latest government data reports that 207 people, out
of 7,585 hospitalized with the disease, have died. The figures
far exceed last year's totals of 10 fatalities and 2,323
hospitalized.

Jakarta, with its sprawling slum areas, has been the most
affected by the outbreak, hitting 261 of the city's 265
subdistricts. At least 43 people have died and 2,993 others have
been hospitalized here since January.

The ballooning number of people infected has forced some
hospitals to turn away people seeking medical attention because
their are already full. The number of dengue cases will surely
increase drastically if the government and the public do not take
prompt measures to curb the spread of the aedes aegypti, the
mosquito which transmits the virus.

In an effort to bring the outbreak under control, the minister
of health will kick off a national anti-dengue drive in East and
South Jakarta, the city's most affected areas. Unfortunately, the
campaign faces several challenges which authorities must confront
with a shortage of resources.

A health official has said that mass fumigation operations
would be largely ineffective in combating the disease's spread.
Such fumigations only kill adult aedes mosquitoes, failing to
exterminate larva growing in stagnant water.

Although a city health official has said there are 99
hospitals and 474 public health centers in Jakarta that are still
able to take in new patients, logistical problems persist for
people looking for treatment.

Some hospitals that are full might be uninformed where they
should send patients they must turn away, while the public may
become panicked should it not be clear which institutions are
already rejecting patients. Some dengue sufferers have been
reportedly taken to the hospital too late because relatives
mistook the symptoms for influenza, which creates a high fever
much like dengue. Many Indonesians simply lack the necessary
formation to detect dengue.

A shortage of nurses also creates a problem, evident even at
the Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital, the country's largest medical
facility. In treating this extraordinary outbreak, each nurse
there has to take care of seven patients even though the ideal
ratio is one nurse to three patients. The great influx of dengue
patients has also forced the hospital to accommodate them in
rooms designed for people suffering from other illnesses.

Since this year's outbreak comes at a time of economic crisis,
which is pushing Indonesia back in time in its development
efforts, low-income dengue victims face the further hardship of
finding ways to pay for medical expenses when it is already
difficult to make ends meet. Health officials say that treating
dengue is comparatively more expensive than treating other
diseases.

The authorities need to see to it that all hospitals treat
low-income patients free of charge, especially the jobless. Every
hospital in the country has a social program to help poor
patients receive treatment but many have complained that their
budget cannot cope with the increasing number of poor people
seeking treatment.