City groans as diarrhea spreads
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The city administration has recorded at least 3,850 cases of diarrhea-induced dehydration, or Gastroenteritis Dehydration (GED), with two deaths, in the capital from January to mid February.
To contain the number of GED cases, which is expected to increase in March when the rainy season is over, the city health agency has encouraged citizens to pay more attention to personal hygiene and the quality of sanitation in their environment.
Jakarta Health Agency spokesperson Evy Zelfino said the city administration had taken measures to prevent more cases of diarrhea.
"The efforts include epidemiology examinations, health campaigns urging people to maintain a clean environment, reminding people to always wash their hands before eating, and chlorinating water in areas where the water sources are polluted," Evy told to The Jakarta Post on Monday.
"We have also waived medical and hospital charges for patients coming from low-income families who are treated in third-class wards on the condition that they are living in flooded areas," Evy said.
City-run Tarakan Hospital, West Jakarta, is currently treating 48 diarrhea patients, 42 of whom were children under five.
"The patients mostly came from Tambora and Kali Anyar, two poorest subdistricts in West Jakarta," said Atiyah, head nurse at the hospital.
Atiyah said that the hospital had prepared around 70 additional beds and 60 intravenous (IV) stands in preparation for more cases of diarrhea.
Dr. H. Tadjuddin Tutu of Tarakan Hospital in West Jakarta said that the cause of GED among children was not only a digestive disorder or an allergic reaction to certain food, but also a viral infection.
Symptoms of dehydration of children with diarrhea are sunken eyes, sunken cheeks, few tears, dry mouth and lips, inelasticity of the skin, cold feet, a pulse rate of over 200 per minute, and not urinating in four hours.
According to Tadjuddin, a patient should be hospitalized when his or her weight reduces by more than 10 percent and has had diarrhea more that five times in 12 hours. (001)