Dengue outbreak bites into city's blood supply

JAKARTA (JP): The dengue fever outbreak has triggered a blood crisis for the Jakarta chapter of the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) due to escalating demand.

Dozens of patients' relatives have been forced to spend more than a day waiting in the understaffed PMI office in Central Jakarta for fresh blood, where supplies have been reported to be "very low".

PMI chairwoman Uga Wiranto said yesterday that the office's four blood processing machines and its 160 employees had to work long hours to meet the increasing demand.

"We need at least 30 more employees and eight more blood processing machines to meet the unusually high demand," she told reporters.

"We know it is unpleasant for people to queue hours for blood, but we are trying not to disappoint them by working around the clock," she added.

As of Tuesday, the number of dengue fever patients treated in various hospitals across the city totaled 4,980 and at least 50 have died, according to official figures.

Uga said that in Jakarta, demand for fresh blood had sharply increased to 512 units a day in the first half of this month from about 300 units per day last month.

"To meet the demand, the machines should be run 24 hours a day. If we had 12 machines, 500 units of blood could be processed in about six hours," she said.

A unit contains 250 cubic centimeters (cc) of blood.

She said that each machine could process only six units per hour, while the process of checking for possible viruses or blood contamination took another 10 hours.

Blood demand totaled 187,579 units last year. Officials project that figure to increase to about 190,000 units for 1998.

Some people came to the PMI office to donate blood to be used for their sick relatives.

Martha, an East Jakarta woman who meant to donate her blood for her relative being treated for dengue fever, said her sick sister-in-law needed 20 units of blood.

"But after waiting for 14 hours, I got only four bags," she said.

She said her sister's platelets had decreased to about 30,000 and that normally they should be between 150,000 and 300,000.

"I'm worried that she will die if I don't get enough blood for her," she said.

Tanto, from Semper in North Jakarta, said he needed five units of blood but had not obtained any after waiting for hours.

The chief of the Indonesian Red Cross, Siti Hardijanti Rukmana, called on the public yesterday to donate blood to save the lives of thousands of people suffering from dengue fever.

Hardijanti, who is also the Minister of Social Affairs, said the ministry would provide funds to overcome the blood crisis and the dengue epidemic.

"The blood supply in the Jakarta PMI branch office is very low due to the rising demand. The office is crowded with people seeking blood."

The chairman of the City Health Office, Aslan Lasman, said that his agency was preparing 43 public health centers to accommodate dengue patients.

"These preparations are being taken in anticipation of the height of the dengue outbreak believed to come in May," he said.

In Yogyakarta, the local office of the Ministry of Health stated that as of Monday, the death toll there for dengue fever had reached 42 with the number of people hospitalized at 1,187.

A spokesman for the office, Budwi Wipriyadi, said that last year's number of people hospitalized with the disease totaled 1,190 with 42 fatalities.

Budwi said the administration had carried out mass fumigation efforts in 92 affected villages.

To anticipate the May to June peak of the dengue outbreak, Sardjito General Hospital has prepared 200 rooms for dengue sufferers.

The hospital's director, Achmad Sujudi, said 100 nurses had been trained to handle dengue fever patients.

"If more beds are needed, we'll ask the Armed Forces for help," he said.

West Java health officials reported in Bandung yesterday that the death toll there had reached 43 and that 10,229 people had been hospitalized. (ind/23/43)