Dark clothes, perfume makes people more prone to dengue

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

As the number of dengue patients continues to rise in hospitals across the city, a general practitioner is advising people here to eliminate the possibility of getting bitten by a mosquito.

Aside from asking the people to cover their water containers and clean them regularly, the practitioner is also urging the public to change their lifestyle.

"Avoid using dark-colored clothing, perfume and cologne as all these attract mosquitoes, especially at night," Yohannes, a general practitioner of the International SOS in Jakarta, told a seminar last week.

Dengue, which has killed dozens of people this year, mostly children in Jakarta, is transmitted by the aedes aegypti mosquito, which can be identified by the black and white stripes on its legs.

The symptoms of dengue include a fever of more than 38 degrees Celsius that lasts between two and seven days, headache, severe joint pain, nausea and skin rash. The incubation period for the disease is between eight and 10 days for adults, and six days for children.

Yohannes also said that the aedes aegypti mosquito, which transmits the dengue virus, bred in or near water that was stagnant or slow moving.

"We should always cover all water containers and any objects that can trap rain water, including tires, pots and rubbish piles. We should fill and drain areas of stagnant water except for swimming pools," he said during a seminar on dengue fever at the Bina Nusantara School in South Jakarta last week.

The seminar was organized to provide the latest information on dengue fever for parents of students at schools around Jakarta.

The number of dengue fever patients continues to rise in the last several weeks with dozens of people having died from the disease.

Many hospitals have been forced to treat their patients on extra beds along their corridors.

Jakarta Health Agency spokesman Evy Zelfino said on Saturday that over 17,000 people with dengue fever had been admitted into city hospitals since January, with 76 deaths, mostly children.

The latest fatality was a five-year old dengue fever patient who lived with his parents in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta. He died on Thursday evening at city-run Budi Asih hospital in East Jakarta.

Evy warned that dengue fever was not only attacking low-income people in slums but also people living in luxurious and clean housing complexes.

"We have also received reports from many hospitals treating people from high-income families. So, all people must work hand- in-hand to fight the spread of dengue fever by actively cleaning their neighborhood and draining tins containing still water," she told The Jakarta Post.

Yohannes said that people should also change water in flower pots once a week and wash them thoroughly while trays should be scrubbed weekly to get rid of any mosquito eggs.

"Cover all water containers and eliminate objects that can trap rainwater," he said.

Yohannes asserted that by doing so, people could eliminate places where the mosquito could breed while at the same time destroying mosquitoes and their larvae.

He advised that to further reduce the risk of being bitten by an adult mosquito, people could use mosquito repellent, mosquito nets or mosquito coils.