Dengue fever kills five in Indramayu

Nana Rukmana, The Jakarta Post, Indramayu, West Java

An outbreak of dengue fever has hit Indramayu regency, West Java, leaving at least five children dead and more than 100 others hospitalized, nurses and officials said on Monday.

They said at least 103 cases of dengue fever had been recorded since early September and that all the sufferers were being treated at the Indramayu General Hospital.

"Most of them have been allowed to go home. Only 31 patients, mostly children, are still undergoing medical treatment," said nurse Uliyati.

She said the number of dengue fever patients had drastically increased during September but the hospital did not have enough children's rooms for the young patients.

"Therefore, we are forced to accommodate some patients in other care rooms," she added.

The five dead children were identified as Devi, 3, Mohammad Sega, 3, Ayu, 4, Hesty, 7, and Rohadi, 12.

Uliyati said doctors had failed to save the children because they were taken to the hospital too late. Their conditions were already severe or they had reached the stage of dengue shock syndrome (DSS).

"They came to the hospital suffering from severe bleeding because of the delay in getting medical treatment. The patients had suffered dengue fever for more than five days on average," she added.

Separately, a senior official of the Indramayu health office, Riyanto, said this year's dengue fever outbreak had hit villagers living in the town's northern coastal areas.

Most of the infected patients were from the villages of Pasekan, Pagirikan, Totoran and Karanganyar in Sindang subdistrict; the villages of Brondong and Pabean Ilir in Indramayu subdistrict; and Rawadalem village in Balongan subdistrict, he said.

"We ask residents in those coastal areas to be alert because during the onset of the wet season such outbreaks could spread quickly," Riyanto added.

He said his office would continue providing and disseminating basic information on how to fight dengue fever, carried by the Aedes agepty mosquitoes, by maintaining a healthy environment.

"The local health office will also continue to carry out fogging at dengue-fever-prone areas to kill the mosquitoes," he added.

Meanwhile, Indramayu Regent Irianto MS Syafiuddin admitted that his administration could have acted faster, "We have reprimanded the health office for being late in tackling this matter. We are now trying to prevent more victims from being infected," he said.

Irianto said he had set up a special team, led by the head of the Idramayu health office, to prevent the spread of the disease. "I will directly supervises the work of the team. We want the dengue fever attack to be stopped soon."

Dengue fever also struck several regencies across North Sumatra province amid the wet season there, killing more than 20 patients, mostly children.