Dengue related deaths down by 50 percent

JAKARTA (JP): During the past year, 466 Indonesians died of dengue, or 2.1 percent of the 22,568 reported cases of the contagious disease, a health official has said.

The director general for the Prevention of Communicable Diseases, Dr. Hadi M. Abednego, said in a seminar here Thursday that the number was more than a 50 percent decrease from the 1,234 reported deaths in 1996.

The mortality rate in 1996 was 2.7 percent with 45,548 dengue cases recorded.

"The average weekly cost for a person receiving hospital treatment for dengue is Rp 150,000. So during 1996, the Indonesian people and government spent Rp 47.25 billion (US$9.45 million) for the treatment of dengue alone," Abednego was quoted by Antara as saying.

About 70 percent of dengue patients were elementary school- aged children. The disease had spread to 2,441 villages -- affecting 27 provinces, 162 districts and 891 subdistricts, he said.

"A campaign to eradicate the disease should be implemented by regularly draining all places filled with stagnant water," he said.

Stagnant water provides fertile breading areas for mosquitoes, the carrier of dengue, to reproduce.

The seminar, attended by 200 participants, was organized by the health ministry in association with the education and culture ministry.

Antara reported yesterday that five hospitals in Jambi, the capital city of Jambi province, have been overflowing with dengue patients.

The head of the municipality's health office, Dr. Abdul Hamid Syam, did not mention the total number of people being treated for dengue at present. He did confirm, however, that the hospital wards have been filled with both children and adult patients.

The news agency reported that between January and November this year, 239 people had been infected by dengue. Eleven of the patients had died.

Hamid Syam said the number was down from last year, but failed to specify the exact figure.

Meanwhile, two people have died and 100 others have been placed in intensive medical care for tropical malaria and diarrhea and vomiting at Tatarandang village in Banggai district, a local government official said.

Harly Mumah, chief of public relations at the Banggai government office in the district's capital of Luwuk, was quoted by Antara as saying that he had received reports about the problem.

Harly said, however, it was still unclear whether the cases in Tatarandang were of malaria and diarrhea and vomiting or other diseases. (swe)