Dengue cases keep on rising in Jakarta
Dengue cases keep on rising in Jakarta
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
While the city administration has not declared the current dengue
outbreak to be an emergency, the number of dengue cases has
continued to increase and have so far claimed 57 lives, mostly
children, since January.
Jakarta Health Agency spokeswoman Evy Zelfino said on Monday
that the number of dengue patients increased from 1,347 patients
in June to 1,366 patients in July.
"There have been 57 deaths because of dengue fever. The number
of patients in the first week of August reached 233, while the
total since January stands at 10,700," she told The Jakarta Post.
She said that her agency did not consider the situation to be
an emergency as the number of cases was still low.
"We will continue to monitor the situation. If there is a
sudden increase in cases, we will declare an emergency," she
said.
The city administration describes the situation as an
emergency if 15 to 20 new cases are admitted each day to a
hospital. Upon declaring an emergency, the administration
allocates special funds and makes special efforts, including
campaigns and medication measures, to prevent the outbreak from
spreading.
The number of patients admitted to the state-owned Pasar Rebo
Hospital in East Jakarta has been over 15 for the last two days.
The hospital's medical manager, Ellen Sianipar, said that if
the trend continued the administration should declare an
emergency in the area.
Evy said that her agency had to compare the admissions
situation in a number of hospitals across Jakarta before
declaring an emergency in the city.
"If a number of hospitals in several areas have high numbers
of patients, then we will declare an emergency. Although we
haven't declared an emergency yet, all dengue patients will
receive free medication in 18 state hospitals throughout the
city," she said.
Evy explained that the number of dengue cases could increase
in the coming months as the rainy season started.
She said that the city administration had taken various
measures to control the situation, including mapping the
incidence of the disease across the capital, urging people to
keep their environments clean, and fumigation.
"We have told people to spend 30 minutes every Friday morning
doing such things as draining open tanks, covering bathing tanks
and burying used cans. If we do this consistently, we can halt
the spread of dengue," she said.
The Aedes aegypti mosquito, which spreads the virus that
causes dengue fever, can be identified by black and white stripes
on its legs.
The symptoms of dengue fever include a high fever of more than
38 degrees Celsius for between two and seven days, headache,
severe joint pain, nausea and skin rash.
Dengue's incubation period is between eight and 10 days for
adults and six days for children.
The Jakarta Health Agency recorded 18,000 cases of dengue
fever last year, with 82 deaths, mostly involving children. The
highest number of cases occurred in February and March, when over
5,000 people came down with the disease.
The agency's data also showed that the number of cases of
dengue fever in Greater Jakarta hit a high of 15,360 in 1998.
Meanwhile, there were 3,998 cases in 1999, 8,729 in 2000, 8,820
in 2001, 5,750 in 2002, and 14,071 in 2003.