City aims to curb dengue fever cases

JAKARTA (JP): East Jakarta is considered the area most prone to outbreaks of dengue fever in the city, according to an official.

Rasjid Piarah, head of the city's school health campaigns, said about 30 percent of the 7,800 dengue fever cases recorded in the city this year occurred in East Jakarta.

"In a bid to improve the lack of local awareness about the disease, we have been training 400 teachers and conducting dengue fever campaigns in neighborhoods and in schools," he said Wednesday.

The disease is transmitted by Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes, which have spread to almost 90 percent of the city's 265 districts in the past 30 years.

Rasjid said few Jakartans knew that the mosquitoes lived on the surface of clean water.

The disease has spread to 2,441 villages, 162 districts and 891 subdistricts nationwide.

According to data from the Ministry of Health, a total of 466 people died last year from the disease. This number was almost two-thirds fewer than the 1,234 people who died in 1995. (edt)