'Chikungunya' spreads to West Timor, Central Sulawesi

Nana Rukmana and Yemris Fointuna, The Jakarta Post, Cirebon, Kupang

The disease chikungunya, which first emerged in Bandung, West Java, last December, has spread to East Nusa Tenggara and Central Sulawesi.

Hundreds of people in Kupang, the capital of East Nusa Tenggara, have been treated at hospitals and public health centers after contracting the disease, whose symptoms are similar to the dengue fever transferred by the aedes aegypti mosquito.

Transmitted by the aedes albopictus mosquito, chikungunya has been spreading across the country during this rainy season, particularly in regions with high rainfall levels.

Frank Touw, head of the intensive care unit at the Kupang General Hospital, said on Monday that chikungunya had spread to urban and rural areas in Kupang regency since last week.

"Though the disease is not fatal, those affected will be physically weak for a fairly long time and it takes three to five days to recover," he said.

Based on The Jakarta Post's monitoring of five hospitals and a number of health centers in Kupang, 50 to 100 patients chikungunya sufferers have been admitted daily over the last few weeks.

Experts at Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital in Jakarta are investigating the outbreak.

The disease affected more than 100 people in Yogyakarta, but its spread was stopped after the local administration launched an integrated health program, including medical care for sufferers.

In Palu, Central Sulawesi, seven inmates of the city's Maesa Penitentiary were found to have symptoms of chikungunya when they underwent medical check-ups at a public health center recently.

The head of the Singgani public health center, Ema Sukmawati, said on Tuesday the prisoners showed the clinical signs of the viral disease, which she said was also known as African fever.

Sukmawati said the inmates first showed symptoms of the flu, including high fever, and then they experienced body pains, focused in their legs.

"The ailment thrives in settlement areas where the quality of health maintenance and sanitation is low, with lots of stagnant water," she said.

Her health center has established a team to monitor the prison and to ascertain whether the inmates are really suffering from chikungunya.

Meanwhile, at least 62 people in two districts of Majalengka regency, West Java, are suffering from chikungunya.

In Jatiwangi district, 43 people are being treated for the disease and 19 others are being treated in Sumberjaya. Most of the patients are in the recuperation phase of the disease, according to the Majalengka health office.

Asep Suandi, head of the health office, told the Post in Majalengka on Tuesday that the actual number of cases might be higher because many people in the regency's other districts had not reported to the health office after contracting the illness.

Earlier, chikungunya hit three villages in Klangenan district, Cirebon regency, with no less than 94 people being admitted to health clinics in the past one and a half months.

Jarmadi Kusmayadi, head of the Cirebon health office's disease monitoring section, said neither the provincial nor the central governments had taken action to stop the spread of the disease in the region.

"We hope the government will provide assistance in the form of epidemiological surveys, medical aid and fogging to eradicate mosquito larvae," Jarmadi said.