Dengue kills another child as outbreak worsens
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post
One more child died of dengue fever on Wednesday as the outbreak worsened in the capital.
The City Health Agency said that as many as 61 dengue patients were admitted into hospitals on Wednesday, but still declined to declare the outbreak an emergency.
"According to our procedure the current condition is not yet considered an emergency. However, we have anticipated every stage of the outbreak," agency spokeswoman Zelfino told The Jakarta Post.
The city declares an emergency if between 15 to 20 new cases are admitted each day to a hospital.
Upon declaring an emergency, the administration would allocate special funds and take extra measures, including a mass education campaign and special medication efforts, to prevent the outbreak from spreading.
The number of patients treated in hospitals in the capital increased to 394 people on Wednesday from 333 on Tuesday.
The highest number of cases occurred in East Jakarta with 119 people, followed by South Jakarta with 109 people, West Jakarta 62, North Jakarta with 60 people and Central Jakarta with 54 people.
The total number of cases has reached 19,095 since January with 59 people dying from the disease.
Gunawan, 5, from Kali Deres, West Jakarta was the latest victim of dengue. He died on Tuesday evening after being treated at Budi Asih Hospital in East Jakarta.
Zelfino refused allegations that her office had done little to prevent the disease from spreading as it did not quickly declare an emergency.
"Just because we don't declare an emergency doesn't mean we do nothing. We hold meetings with all community health centers every Thursday to monitor the situation, and order them to accept every dengue patient for free," she said.
Zelfino said her office had conducted a Friday program in which all officials at every subdistrict in Jakarta urged people to drain their open tanks, cover bathing tanks and bury used cans.
"We must acknowledge that many people have not joined the program yet. Actually, if we do this consistently we can stop the spread of the disease," she said.
After Budi Asih in East Jakarta and Fatmawati Hospital in South Jakarta, Pasar Rebo Hospital in East Jakarta and Koja Hospital in North Jakarta have also run out of beds for dengue patients.
Pasar Rebo Hospital, which is handling 64 cases of dengue, has to place 22 patients along their terrace, while the Koja hospital, which is treating dozens of patients, has to transfer several of their patients to other hospitals.
Minister of Health Siti Fadhilah Supari said on Wednesday that Jakarta had the highest number of dengue cases in Indonesia, with East Java coming second with 6,007 cases.
She said that until Aug. 8 the total number of dengue cases in the country reached 36,499 in 31 province, with 498 people dying from the disease.