Dengue hits 19 provinces

Dengue hits 19 provinces

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The dengue fever outbreak has spread to 19 of the country's 32
provinces, with the death toll from the outbreak approaching 200.

The secretary-general of the Directorate General of
Communicable Diseases, Syafii Ahmad, told The Jakarta Post that
as of Friday the government had recorded 10,140 dengue cases with
195 deaths, mostly in Central Java, East Java and Jakarta.

Syafii said that despite the escalation of the outbreak, the
government had no plans to declare it an epidemic.

"The law requires us to maintain the level of the outbreak as
an extraordinary occurrence or national catastrophe because the
death toll this year is still around double last year's figure.
It is not that easy to change the status," Syafii said.

An epidemic can be declared only if the casualty rate surges
to 10 times higher than the previous year, Syafii said.

Dengue cases have been found in all five mayoralties in
Jakarta, and the disease has affected 29 out of 35
regencies/mayoralties in Central Java and more than half of 38
regencies/mayoralties in East Java.

The disease has also spread to West Java, Banten, Yogyakarta,
Bali, West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi,
North Sulawesi, East Kalimantan, South Kalimantan and Jambi.

Syafii said the health ministry had obtained Rp 150 billion
(US$17 million) in emergency funds to fight the outbreak.

"We have already secured the emergency funds and we will use
the money to purchase more insecticides for spraying, sero-survey
research and to conduct a public education campaign," he said.

He said regional governments could ask the ministry for
financial aid to contain the disease.

Jakarta Health Agency head Chalik Masulili said his office
would take the health ministry up on its offer of money to
purchase equipment for spraying mosquitoes.

"Ideally, each village needs three or four devices but we
cannot afford to buy that many," said Chalik.

The provincial health agency in Jakarta has received Rp 500
million to battle the dengue outbreak, with each municipal health
agency receiving Rp 100 million.

Because a national catastrophe has been declared, poor dengue
patients are entitled to treatment at no charge.

Meanwhile, a dengue expert at the University of Indonesia said
domestic and foreign scientists were developing a vaccine for the
virus, but it would be at least three years before the vaccine
was complete.

"It is difficult to create a vaccine that can kill all of the
different types of the virus," said Prof. R.H.H. Nelwan, head of
tropical and infectious diseases at the university's School of
Medicine.

Dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever are caused by one of four
closely related, but antigenically distinct, virus serotypes:
DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3 and DEN-4. The most virulent of these
serotypes, DEN-3, is blamed for the current outbreak.

"We can't just give a DEN-3 vaccine to cure people who are
infected with DEN-1 serotype because it would only worsen the
disease. It will be no use to use a DEN-3 vaccine if another
serotype virus attacks," he said.

Separately, the head of the Arbovirology Department at the
Ministry of Health, Rita Kusriastuti, said flooding in Jakarta
and other areas of the country could help curb the spread of the
virus.

"The floodwaters can sweep away larvae and eggs, decreasing
the number of mosquitoes. However, we must remain vigilant as
they could return in one or two weeks after the flooding is
over," she said.

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