Dengue fever to peak in middle of this month

JAKARTA (JP): Cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever will peak in the middle of this month, with at least 43 subdistricts seen as being the most prone to the disease, an official warned on Friday.

The head of the Jakarta office of the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Dedy Ruswendy, said after meeting with Governor Sutiyoso at City Hall that most of the dengue fever-susceptible subdistricts were located in East Jakarta.

"They are former swamp areas and some of them have been inundated after hours of rainfall," Dedy said, adding that the rainy season was expected to reach its peak this month.

Cases of the disease were reported in 55 subdistricts across the capital last year.

The fever is carried by aedes aegypty mosquitoes, which lay their eggs on the surface of still water. Because of this, areas that are inundated with rain are more likely to report cases of the disease.

Dedy said 831 cases had been reported as of Friday, with 625 reported in January alone. Four people have died of the disease so far. Two of them were being treated at Tarakan General Hospital in Central Jakarta, while the other two were being treated at Pasar Rebo Hospital in East Jakarta and Koja General Hospital in North Jakarta, respectively.

Currently, 68 hospitals and 265 community health centers across the capital have been put on the alert for an outbreak of dengue fever.

Dedy said hospitals are not allowed to turn away dengue fever patients, particularly those who are poor.

"Poor patients suffering from dengue fever should be exempt from hospital charges, as long as they have documents showing they are residents of the subdistrict in question," Dedy said.

Due to a lack of funding, the health office will only fumigate those areas where the disease has claimed lives.

"Fumigation is not that effective because it only kills adult mosquitoes, while their eggs still carry the dengue virus," he said.

He renewed calls on residents to close, periodically clean or bury water containers in order to help prevent the disease. The government has stepped up its dengue fever prevention campaign, called 3M, an acronym for scrubbing and closing household water tanks and buckets, and burying old cans.

A doctor at a community health center in Tebet, South Jakarta, Yosephin S. Sutanti, said dengue fever had not yet claimed a significant number of victims.

"We have only found one or two patients every week, and most of them are still in the first and second stages of the disease. We just give them medicine and order them to check their condition after three days of treatment," Yosephin said.

She said the patients would require several blood tests, which cost Rp 10,000 each.

Yosephin said the community health center also provided residents a free-of-charge fogging service as a precautionary measure.

"If the number of victims is increasing, we will fog the area with pesticide," she said, adding that residents could obtain a similar service from private firms, which charge about Rp 5,000 per residence. (04/07)