Dengue admittances continue to rise daily
Dengue admittances continue to rise daily
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
A five-year old dengue patient died on Thursday evening at the
Budi Asih hospital in East Jakarta while four others were in
critical condition at Pasar Rebo hospital also in East Jakarta on
Friday as the number of dengue cases continues to rise in the
capital.
Jidan, who lived with his parents in Kalibata, Pasar Minggu,
South Jakarta, died at 11:30 p.m. in Budi Asih's intensive care
unit on Thursday after being admitted to the hospital early in
the morning.
"He was fine in the beginning, but after several hours his
condition deteriorated. We brought him to the ICU but he died
before midnight," Ida, an information officer of the city-run
Budi Asih hospital, said on Friday.
Meanwhile, four children are still being treated at the ICU of
Pasar Rebo hospital and their condition is reported to be
critical.
The four are Ibnu Safera, four, from Cijantung in East
Jakarta; Gigih Sutawijaya, six, from Ciracas, also in East
Jakarta; Inggrid Selfina, nine, from Pejaten Timur, South Jakarta
and Andi Sutiyana, 13, from Pancoran Mas, Depok, West Java.
Pasar Rebo hospital spokesman Dedi Suryadi said that the four
patients needed intensive treatment as their parents took them to
the hospital when they were already seriously ill.
Jakarta Health Agency spokesman Evy Zelfino said over 17,000
people across the capital had been admitted into hospitals since
January, of which 76 people, mostly children, have died.
She said that the number of dengue patients admitted to
hospital continued to rise in the last several weeks.
As the number of dengue fever cases continues to increase in
the capital, several hospitals have been forced to treat patients
on additional beds along the corridors.
A total of 62 patients were being treated at Budi Asih
hospital as of Friday, with 18 admitted on Friday. Thirty-one of
them were being treated along the corridors as rooms allocated
for dengue patients were all full.
A similar increase in the number of patients was also
experienced by Pasar Rebo, Tarakan hospital in Central Jakarta
and Fatmawati hospital in South Jakarta. Dozens of patients were
treated along the corridors of those hospitals.
The number of dengue patients in Fatmawati, for instance,
reached 51 in November this year compared to 28 people last year.
The hospital said that they received six dengue patients every
day.
Despite the continued increase in dengue cases, Evy said that
the administration had not declared the situation an emergency.
"We have our own criteria for declaring an emergency
situation," she said.
The administration assesses the dengue outbreak as an
emergency if 15 to 20 new cases are admitted each day to a
hospital.
Upon declaring an emergency, the administration will allocate
special funds and launch a massive campaign on dengue eradication
and other measures to prevent the outbreak from spreading.