'Chikungunya' outbreaks hits Tangerang
Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang
Nur Fadillah should have been enjoying her school holidays like her friends. But the 12-year-old girl had to stay in bed as she could not move her swollen arms and legs in the past four days.
"I also feel the itchy on the swollen parts of my legs and arms," she said.
Her father Yunus, 44, said that he also began to have the similar symptoms two days ago.
"It's like having a fever. I feel cold and have joint pain. I also feel dizzy and sleepy all the time," he said.
The pair are among over 50 residents of Kampong Pintu Kapuk, Bojong Renged subdistrict in Teluk Naga district, Tangerang, who have contracted chikungunya.
First recognized in its epidemic form in East Africa in 1952, it has continued to cause major epidemics in Africa, India and Southeast Asia. Also known as epidemic polyarthritis and rash, or buggy creek virus, the first case reported in Indonesia was in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, in 1973 and the last was in 1983 in Yogyakarta.
After a hiatus of almost 20 years, chikungunya broke out again in early 2001 in Muara Enim, South Sulawesi and Aceh, then in October of the same year in Bogor, West Java. The epidemic struck Bekasi in West Java, and Purworejo and Klaten in Central Java in 2002.
Having similar symptoms to dengue fever, chikungunya, however, is characterized by a briefer episode of fever, persistent arthralgia is some cases, and by the absence of deaths. Chikungunya is a self-limiting febrile virus that is transmitted through the bite of aedes aegypti or aedes africanus mosquito.
The illness usually lasts for three to 10 days, with arthralgia remaining a problem for weeks to several months after the initial phase.
Since there is currently no antiviral available, prevention of the disease focuses at controlling mosquitoes and avoiding mosquito bites, while the patients should take enough rest and eat nutritious food.
Tangerang regental health agency, with help from the Ministry of Health, has sent a team of medical doctors to the small village near the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, which will be affected by the expansion of the airport in the near future.
The team provided free medical treatment for villagers who are suffering with chikungunya symptoms and took blood samples for laboratory tests.
Head of the communicable disease prevention unit at the regental health agency, Yuliah Iskandar, said that the agency would fumigate the village and other villages in the whole district to curb the epidemic.
"We advise residents to immediately get a check up at public health centers if they begin to feel the symptoms. We also tell them to keep their environment clean to prevent mosquitoes from breeding," she said.