Dengue, 'chikungunya' claim 13 lives in Cirebon

Nana Rukmana, The Jakarta Post, Cirebon, West Java

An outbreak of dengue fever and chikungunya disease has claimed the lives of 13 people in Cirebon, West Java, over the past two months, a local health official said on Saturday.

Dadang Prihadi, the head of the Cirebon health office, said at least 315 people in the regency were infected with the mosquito- borne diseases.

"Over the last two months we have recorded 216 cases of dengue fever and 99 cases of chikungunya," said Dadang.

"The patients who died were those who didn't get medical treatment in time," he said.

Dengue fever is spread by the Aedes aegepty mosquito while chikungunya is spread by the Aedes albopictus mosquito.

To curb the diseases, he said, the health office has been running an integrated mosquito extermination operation. "The regent also instructed us to do that immediately," he added.

Separately, Cirebon Regent Sutisna said that his administration had allocated Rp 75 million (about US$8,400) to fumigate the areas as well as to disseminate information on disease prevention to people.

"The fund is just for running the emergency leg of the operation. We are still trying to raise more funds to completely wipe out the diseases. We acknowledge that to enhance people's quality of life, we have to increase the health budget," Sutisna said.

Dadang said the administration had fumigated 23 districts out of a total of 36 districts in the regency.

He said that by mid-March they would have completed fumigations in all 36 districts, including those where there were no cases of dengue fever and chikungunya.

"We don't want to take any risks by skipping any places because (we know that) from past experience, April and May will be the peak of a five-year cycle of the outbreak," he said.

Out of the 36 districts in the regency, three districts, Batu Belah, Klangenan and Karangsari, are most prone to dengue fever.

He added that based on the five-year cycle, this year would be the peak of the cycle. In comparison to previous years, this year's number of cases of dengue fever is higher.