Dark clothes, perfume makes people more prone to dengue
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.