Dengue cases rise by 500% in Bekasi

BEKASI: Dengue fever patients in Bekasi have increased more than 500 percent in the last three months compared to the same period last year, Bekasi Health Agency's head of disease prevention and eradication Yasni Rufaidah said.

"It's actually not only during the last three months, we've seen a dramatic increase in dengue cases since April this year," she said as quoted by Tempointeraktif on Tuesday.

According to data from the Bekasi Health Agency the number of dengue patients increased to 159 patients in December from 29 patients during the same month last year. In November the number increased to 212 patients from only 22 patients the previous year, and in October the number of patients increased to 134 from 20 patients last year.

Yasni said that rain that has continued the whole year had caused the sharp increase in the number of patients. --JP