Dengue treatment sky-high for many

Apriadi Gunawan and Hasrul, The Jakarta Post, Medan/Kendari

It has been five days now since Ahmad Hazali started receiving treatment for dengue fever at Pirngadi Hospital in Medan, North Sumatra, but the doctors still won't let him go home.

Medical staff are still monitoring his condition even though the 19-year-old man said he wanted to go home to help his mother run her kiosk.

"The doctor won't let me go home. I want to go back to help my mom watch over her kiosk. Poor mom, she has no one else to help her," he told The Jakarta Post from his mosquito-net-covered bed at the hospital on Saturday.

Physically, Ahmad felt stronger than during the first couple of days after he checked into the hospital. Then he was running a temperature of 39 degrees Celsius.

At first, he thought it was an ordinary fever, but when he got to the hospital it was confirmed that he had dengue fever.

"When the doctor told me he had dengue fever, I asked for him to be treated immediately," said Tengku Aidarni, Ahmad's mother.

The 49-year-old widow and mother of five said that since her son had been admitted to the hospital she had been unable to work as she had to look after him. Since her husband died, she ran a small kiosk at her home in Sidorukun, East Medan district, with Ahmad's help. Her other children were all married.

"I want him to come back home soon so I can open up my kiosk again and at the same time look after him," she said.

Over the last 10 days, 37 dengue fever patients have checked in to various hospitals in Medan. Two of them have died.

Between November of last year and February of this year, around 734 people are reported to have come down with dengue fever, with 17 of them having died.

In Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi, 39-year-old Gusti appeared sad. He was not only thinking of his daughter who had taken sick with dengue fever but also how to pay for her medical care.

His daughter, the three-and-a-half-year-old Dewi, has been receiving treatment for four days at the Sulawesi Tenggara hospital. So far, Gusti has spent over Rp 300,000 (US$33) on medicine and administrative expenses alone.

"I get confused when I try to work out how I will pay the hospital, especially given that my daughter has not yet recovered yet. I'm just a construction worker," Gusti told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

But he's determined to find the money, even if it means he has to borrow money from his neighbors. "I love Dewi very much. She's my only daughter. Whatever the cost, she has to survive," Gusti said.

Gusti, from Tabuuha, Mandonga district, is only one of numerous poor people who have been affected by the disease but cannot not afford to pay for treatment.

Karlina, whose daughter has also taken ill with dengue fever, urged the local government to provide free treatment.

"We hope the administration will provide free medical case for the likes of us poor families," she said.

Since early January, 185 people have been treated for dengue fever in the province, with four people reported to have died.

The local government has tried to prevent the spread of the disease by warning people about the dangers of dengue fever, fumigation, and eliminating mosquito-breeding places. But so far it has not free medical treatments for the poor.

"The government should assist poor patients. If necessary, the government should provide free medical treatment," said Dahris Aldjudawie, director of Southeast Sulawesi Community Empowerment, a non-governmental organization.

He also criticized four hospitals -- the Sulawesi Tenggara, Ismoyo, Santa Anna and Abunawas hospitals -- which allegedly discriminated in favor of patients with money. "I'm worried that if access to treatment is based on this, poor patients will be neglected," Dahris said.

However, Blasius, the head of Sulawesi Tenggara hospital's information section, said on Saturday that the hospital provided free medical treatment to the poor.

However, he said that poor patients needed to follow the procedures, including producing a letter from the head of the village where they lived confirming that they were of limited means.