Bogor prepares for more dengue patients

BOGOR: As the number of dengue fever patients increases, the city-owned Cibinong hospital in Bogor has prepared additional beds.

The hospital treated 15 patients this month for dengue, eight of them children, hospital spokeswoman Wahyu Kurdijanti said on Wednesday.

One of the children, seven-year-old Gunawan died last week.

"We have treated 361 dengue fever patients since January, six of whom have died," she said.

Wahyu explained that the patients who died were in a bad condition when they were admitted to the hospital.

"The public are still not aware of the symptoms of the disease ... it's sometimes too late when they seek medical treatment," she added.

The hospital treated a total of 704 patients for dengue last year, 14 of whom died.

Bogor Health Agency recorded 18 fatalities as of Wednesday out of 385 people who had contracted dengue this year, many of them children.

According to the head of the communicable diseases prevention unit at the Bogor municipality, Eulis Wulantari, the number of patients this year decreased compared to last year.

She argued that people's awareness of the need to maintain a healthy and clean environment was a contributing factor.

"But there is still coordination between the administration and the public to conduct drives to clean up the city and not to depend only on fogging which kills adult Aedes aegypti mosquito but not the larvae," Eulis said. -- JP