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.