Chikungunya infects hundreds of locals in Bantul

Slamet Susanto, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

After infecting hundreds of people in other areas across the nation, Chikungunya disease, similar to dengue fever and not fatal, has now been confirmed in Bantul regency, Yogyakarta.

The first suspected case was reported two weeks ago, and now is said to infect hundreds of people, especially in Bambanglipuro and Sanden districts.

Murtijan, the chief of Gunungan hamlet, Sumbermulyo subdistrict in Bambanglipuro district here said on Friday that many residents in the hamlet were already infected by the disease. Out of a total of more than 400 residents, about 100 of have gotten the disease, he said.

Chikungunya is contracted through a mosquito bite and is characterized by an extremely high fever, but differs from dengue in its symptoms of severe joint pain (arthralgia) that last up to a week.

Murtijan, 55, complained that the regency health agency had done nothing to stop the spread of Chikungunya.

"The Bantul health office has not fumigated our hamlet yet or taken other measures to combat the disease, and so it is spreading fast in our hamlet," said Murtijan.

Ndaru, a resident in the neighboring subdistrict Sumberagung, said that the disease had spread to 10 hamlets in the subdistrict.

"Approximately, 800 residents have been infected by the disease," claimed Ndaru, a university student from the area.

In addition to Sumbermulyo and Sumberagung subdistricts, the disease also has struck Srigarding subdistrict in Sanden district here.

Saridjah, 46, a resident in Srigading subdistrict, said that five people here had been infected.

"The spread of the disease in the subdistrict began in December," she recalled.

Head of the Bantul Health Office's Communicable Disease Section Aries Suyanto acknowledged that it had struck several districts in Bantul.

He said that the office would immediately fumigate several areas suspected of being breeding grounds for the Aedes Albopictus mosquito, which is a carrier of the Chikungunya virus.

He, however, reminded people not to be panic, because the it is not fatal.

The first reported case of chikungunya was in 1952 in Tanzania. In Indonesia, the first reported case was in 1973 in Samarinda, East Kalimantan. It spread to Kuala Tungkal in Jambi province in 1980 and to Yogyakarta, Martapura and Ternate in 1983. Various cases have been reported recently in Cirebon and Bandung in West Java province, and the latest report was last week in the Taman Sari area of Jakarta.