Dengue fever cases reported

Dengue fever cases reported

JAKARTA: The Jakarta's Crisis Monitoring Center announced on
Friday that there have been 287 cases of dengue fever in the
capital, with the highest number in the Palmerah subdistrict,
where there have been 20 reported cases since Jan 2.

The elderly and others over 46 years old, suffered the most
with 192 cases, health officials said.

The rest of the incidents of the illness were spread out among
different age groups, with 57 cases for people between the ages
of 15 and 45 years old, and 27 cases for youngsters aged six to
14; in addition, there were 11 reports of the disease in children
between one to five years old.

The center also recorded a total of 2,363 cases of diarrhea,
which affected mostly toddlers, with 1,432 recorded instances.

As many as 522 infants less than one-year-old were struck with
diarrhea.

Both illnesses were triggered by the massive floods that hit
Jakarta beginning on Jan. 28. The water still has yet to recede
in several parts of the city.

Abdul Cholik Masulili, chief of the City Health Agency, said
that certain parts of Jakarta were swamped with clean water which
created many places where Aedes aegypti, a type of mosquito known
to carry dengue fever, can breed.

"We have urged communities to eradicate areas where mosquitoes
can be found," he said.

The eradication efforts included cleaning and closing clean
water reservoirs and burying unused cans.

The agency also called on people to spread powdered
insecticide to kill mosquito eggs. -- Antara