Curbing dengue fever gets highest priority

Curbing dengue fever gets highest priority

JAKARTA (JP): The city administration is considering shelving
"less urgent" projects and using the money to finance efforts to
curb a dengue fever outbreak expected to peak next month.

Governor Sutiyoso said over the weekend that he has ordered
his deputies to identify such projects which could be postponed
in favor of dengue fever eradication campaigns.

"The number of people contracting the disease is increasing
every day, while this fiscal year's city budget has to be slashed
due to the economic crisis. We have to set priorities," he told
journalists.

As of last Thursday, the death toll in the dengue outbreak had
reached 63 with another 7,526 people hospitalized. Official
statistics show that 200 people have contracted the virus every
day over the past few weeks.

Hospitals across the city have been overwhelmed with seemingly
endless admissions. Many patients have been treated in hospital
corridors because beds are fully booked.

The administration has sent mattresses to hospitals and public
health centers to accommodate the patients and has promised to
build "temporary field hospitals" if existing facilities could no
longer treat the patients.

The field-hospital concept would be implemented in cooperation
with the Armed Forces. The facilities may be set up in vacant
spaces within hospital complexes.

The administration also launched a mass movement for
eradicating habitats of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, the carrier of
the dengue fever virus, last week.

Sutiyoso said he was disappointed because the public did not
fully support the campaign.

"It's important that residents join hands to combat the
epidemic and they should not rely solely on the government for
it," he said.

City secretary Fauzi Bowo told reporters that, so far, the
administration has allocated Rp 200 million (US$25,000) to
finance dengue fever eradication campaigns.

The money was taken from funds earmarked for emergency
purposes, he said.

In Bogor, Regent Eddie Yoso Martadipura reported Saturday that
the death toll in the dengue outbreak there has risen to 21 as of
Friday, up from 12 reported 10 days ago.

The number of people hospitalized for the disease rose to 619
from 355 over the same period, he said.

He has promised to look into reports that some government
officials have charged residents money for mosquito fumigation.

"No official should add the people's burden at this time of
crisis. I will find out who these individuals are," he said.
(ind/24)