Dengue fever kills 24

JAKARTA (JP): Doctors have been ordered to delay their holidays in Sumenep, a regency in Madura, East Java, after a dengue fever claimed a death toll of 24.

A spokesman for the regency's administration, Mohammad Roeslan, told Antara in Sumenep yesterday that the doctors would go on working in anticipation of an escalating epidemic.

Roeslan said that 121 people were infected by the disease within 30 days after it broke in November. The number has climbed to 379 in the past month.

He added that all health centers had been called to set up emergency posts serving the public 24 hours a day.

The Sumenep regent has earmarked an extra Rp 10 million (US$4,348) to stop the epidemic, according to Roeslan. "We have run out of funds taken from both the national and regional budgets," he said. set it on fire, partly destroying it.