City aims to curb dengue fever cases

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)