Dengue fever spreading, more regions cry for help

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Cirebon

The dengue fever outbreak has continued to escalate, prompting a number of regional administrations to demand more health workers and emergency aid.

Jakarta Health Agency spokeswoman Evi Zelvino said on Tuesday dozens of health workers from state-owned medical schools and paramedic institutions had been deployed to help city-run hospitals, which were short of medical workers.

The number of incoming patients, however, is too many to handle despite the reinforcements, she said.

Evi said her office recorded 4,252 cases of dengue fever as of Tuesday, with 1,524 patients undergoing treatment at the hospital and 47 dead.

While 3,150 cases had been recorded as of Saturday, with the death toll reaching 38.

The Tarakan General Hospital in Central Jakarta has admitted 82 dengue fever patients thus far. With a total capacity of 136 beds, the hospital has had to add more beds and recruit medical workers from the city administration.

The hospital's deputy director of service Basuki said on Tuesday 15 beds had arrived from the Cengkareng General Hospital and three medical workers from the Persahabatan Hospital in East Jakarta.

"But we need at least 10 more workers to take care of the patients," said Basuki.

In the neighboring Bogor municipality and Bogor regency in West Java, 396 dengue cases have been recorded since January, 12 of them have died.

Spokesman for Bogor Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) Hospital Yudha W. Waspada said that so far, 27 dengue patients had been treated in the hospital.

The hospital had asked for more folding beds from the Indonesian Army Education Center and the International Committee for the Red Cross in anticipation of more dengue fever patients.

In Cirebon regency, West Java, dengue fever has claimed three lives in the last three weeks.

Mahbub, the division head of animal-borne diseases eradication at the local health office, said 65 people had been infected with the disease this month. Dengue fever had also caused the deaths of three children, bringing the death toll to 224 over the past two months.

In Indramayu, also in West Java, the outbreak has affected 230 people, eight of them have died.

"The outbreak has resurged since late last week after slightly subsiding a week earlier," head of the children's ward at Indramayu General Hospital Dewi Kurniawati said.

Medan remains one of the provinces least affected by the dengue outbreak, with only 19 people infected since January and a casualty rate of zero.

The local health office will start fumigating residential areas on Wednesday.

In Serang, Banten, of 544 dengue patients in the last two months, 11 have died.

Serang Hospital vice director Budiardjo said his hospital predicted the number of patients would sharply increase next month when the rainy season ends.

"If that happens, we will have to place patients in unused rooms. We need more beds as there are only 16 beds left," he said, adding that the supply of medicine was still sufficient.

According to him, the hospital had requested more beds from PMI.

Separately, the office of the Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare asked the public to join the national movement to drain water tanks and close or bury unnecessary water tanks to help prevent mosquitoes from breeding.

"Fumigation will not be effective unless people work toward improving their environmental conditions," the office of the coordinating minister advised.

The Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) concurred that ongoing environmental destruction had triggered the dengue fever outbreak, while the public also lacked information on how to fight the virus.

It called on the government to, among other measures, formulate a law to support a healthy environment in the country that would help prevent another outbreak of dengue fever.