Dengue prevention must be constant, expert says
Leony Aurora and Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Jayapura
A lack of post-outbreak action is blamed for the recurrence of dengue fever and the country's failure to eradicate the disease, a tropical disease specialist said on Saturday.
Leonard Nainggolan, from the University of Indonesia, said, after a public discussion at Mitra Keluarga hospital, Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, that the eradication from neighborhoods of possible mosquito breeding grounds should be maintained throughout the year.
"Draining and covering water tanks and burying unused water containers should not stop after the rainy season. Such action should continue throughout the year," he said.
In dengue-prone areas like Jakarta, many people are infected all year round, with a peak every five years.
Across Indonesia, dengue cases have always existed throughout the year. Since 1990, an average 17,000 people have been infected by the virus every year.
The latest data shows that within the first three months of this year, some 35,000 people were infected by dengue fever, with 427 dead.
Leonard said the outbreak this year was a belated peak after the last in 1998 when 71,776 cases were found and about 2,440 people died.
The case fatality rate (CFR), which measures the number of fatalities among patients, for this year's outbreak has dropped to 1.2 percent from 1.8 percent on March 1.
Leonard attributed the decline to the fact that people had become much more alert.
"There are also many false positive cases," he added.
On the other hand, with better knowledge of the disease, health workers managed to improve their treatment and saved patients.
The government has set a target of reducing the CFR to 1 percent by May. The Ministry of Health recently announced a plan to recruit and train 70,000 health workers to eradicate diseases like dengue fever, treat the sick and educate people on how to prevent the virus from spreading.
However, no timeframe has been given for this campaign, which is expected to cost over Rp 1 trillion (US$118 million).
Meanwhile, in Papua, despite the decline in the national CFR, the dengue fever outbreak in the country's easternmost province remains out of control as the number of dengue patients has continued to increase. As of Saturday 122 people had been infected, with one dead.
Paminto Widodo, coordinator of the Health Crisis Center (HCC) in the provincial capital, Jayapura, said the fever had spread to five regencies, with Sorong in West Irian Jaya the most affected.
"There are 65 patients in Sorong mayoralty, compared with 20 in Jayapura municipality, 16 in Merauke regency, 12 in Sorong regency and eight in Jayapura regency," Paminto said.
He added that besides fumigating all areas vulnerable to an outbreak, his office had sent field workers across the province to disseminate information on dengue fever and necessary preventive measures.