City finally starting health program for flood ailments

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

It took three fatalities from 287 patients suffering from dengue before the Jakarta Administration finally decided to set up a health program to alert local residents to the disease after the three-week-long floods.

The program , officially inaugurated by Governor Sutiyoso in ceremony at the National Monument (Monas) on Saturday, includes the use of pesticides to kill Aedes aegypti mosquito larvae, which carry the dengue arbovirus, that are breeding rapidly in nearby reservoirs.

"We must inform the city's residents of the program, so that they won't refuse it," the head of the City Health Agency, Abdul Cholik Masulili told The Jakarta Post about the delay.

He also refused the accusation that the administration had been pitifully slow to respond to preventing water-borne diseases after the floods.

"Conducting a public campaign is not an easy task," Masulili said, adding that the health program was aimed at encouraging residents to maintain a high level of hygiene in their neighborhoods.

Jakarta is prone to dengue. Each year, hundreds of residents fall sick from the disease. During a dengue outbreak in 1998, over 15,000 people fell ill and more than 300 died and this year a serious outbreak is likely because floods have created numerous breeding grounds for the mosquito.

Masulili renewed calls on residents to prevent the disease by scrupulously scrubbing household water tanks, buckets and keeping their lids tightly closed, as well as burying old cans.

The administration will also deploy over 9,000 medical officers for the free-of-charge health operation in 149 subdistricts around the city. The officers will manage the public campaign against the disease.

Masulili said the officers' tasks are to pour chlorine and disinfectant and give the oral rehydration medicine oralit to flood victims in a bid to curb the spread of diarrhea. Diarrhea has claimed the lives of over 20 people, mostly toddlers, among over 2,300 suffering from flood-related ailments since Jan. 28.

The agency is providing 3,000 kilograms of chlorine, 27,000 liters of disinfectant, 70,000 sachets of oralit and 1,625 abate, the pesticide to kill mosquito larvae.

In another development, several flood-monitoring posts organized by non-governmental organizations and students from Jakarta State University (UNG), reported that a number of community health centers in North Jakarta and East Jakarta were charging people, suffering from flood-related illnesses, Rp 10,000 each.

Farid R. Faqih, coordinator of a flood post, expected the agency to instruct community health centers and privately run hospitals to provide free medical treatment for flood victims.

He also said that flood victims should be treated free of charge without having to present certain documents declaring that they are flood victims, as required by the health centers and hospitals.

"Please report them to us along with the receipt so I can take effective action," he said, adding that people could contact the agency on Jl. Kesehatan 1 in Central Jakarta, or phone 381-3217. People can also contact him on his mobile phone, 0812-9087118.