Dengue cases still high in West Jakarta

Dengue cases still high in West Jakarta

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The number of dengue fever patients at city-run Tarakan Hospital,
Central Jakarta, keeps increasing, although the figure has
decreased at state-run Cipto Mangunkusumo general hospital (RSCM)
in Central Jakarta and city-run Budhi Asih Hospital, Cawang, East
Jakarta.

Data at Tarakan Hospital showed that the number of dengue
patients was 62 on Tuesday compared with 53 on Monday and 54 on
Saturday.

The figure was much higher compared with that at Budhi Asih
Hospital where 24 patients were treated for dengue on Tuesday.
The number decreased from 29 on Monday, 33 on Sunday and Saturday
and 44 on Friday.

"There are only one or two new dengue patients a day. We still
have beds available for them," said Tini, an on-duty nurse at the
Budhi Asih Hospital.

At the RSCM, there were only 11 dengue patients on Tuesday,
lower than Sunday's 17 and Thursday's 24.

Jakarta Health Agency spokeswoman Evi Zelfino said on Tuesday
that the increasing number of dengue cases at the Tarakan
Hospital indicated that the outbreak in the western part of the
capital had yet to recede.

"However, that is only my assumption. To make a proper
assessment, our officers must find out the addresses of all
patients and check out the situation there," she told The Jakarta
Post.

Tarakan Hospital head of nursing Atiyah said on Tuesday that
currently 12 dengue patients -- seven adults and four children --
had to be treated on extra beds on Monday.

"Seven of them left the hospital and only four are still being
treated on extra beds as of today. We still have several dengue
patients in intensive care," she said.

Four dengue patients were admitted earlier on Tuesday to
intensive care.

One of them was a seven-year-old girl named Penika, from Kapuk
Muara subdistrict, North Jakarta. Her mother, Pupu, 25, said that
her daughter had suffered from a high fever since Friday and
started bleeding from the nose on Monday.

"A doctor at a health clinic near our house said that my
daughter had to be rushed here," said Pupu, whose husband Kadisa,
30, was a door-to-door shoe vendor.

To Pupu, Penika's health came first but she does not know how
she will pay the hospital fees.

"We don't have any money," she said in tears.

Atiyah emphasized that all dengue patients being treated in
third-class wards or on extra beds would receive free treatment
as the medical expenses would be paid by the Jakarta
administration.

She said that patients only needed to obtain a letter from
their subdistrict office confirming their status to qualify for
the treatment.

Evi said that 77 people had died due to dengue while 3,541
others had been hospitalized since early this year.