'Chikungunya' spreads to West Timor, Central Sulawesi

'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.