Dengue fever kills 23 in South Sulawesi

Andi Hajramurni, The Jakarta Post, Makassar, South Sulawesi

An outbreak of dengue fever in South Sulawesi over the past two months has killed at least 23 people and hospitalized 546 others, signaling the possibility of an increase over last year's 38 deaths, a local health official said on Tuesday.

Dengue fever has affected almost all regencies and cities in South Sulawesi, said the head of the province's health office, Akib Kamaluddin.

"The likelihood is that the number (of victims) will increase, since not all cities and regencies have reported to us on the dengue fever situation in their areas," Akib said, adding that 15 out of 25 regions had yet to file reports.

He said the highest number of reported dengue fever cases had been recorded in the province's capital city, Makassar, where 12 had died and 289 others fallen ill.

Last year, the total death toll amounted to 38 compared to 23 in the first two months of this year.

Akib attributed the rise on ineffective efforts to fight the disease, which is spread via the Aedes aegypti mosquito.

Despite the outbreak of dengue fever, the public still had a low awareness about environmental cleanliness measures to prevent the mosquitoes from breeding, he explained.

Spraying and fumigation had made the mosquitoes resistant to pesticides, and so far there were no drugs or vaccine to counter the disease, he said.

"So, the only thing we can do is to rely on prevention measures like emptying, filling in or covering places where water can accumulate," Akib said.