Diarrhea claims 18 lives in East Nusa Tenggara

KUPANG, East Nusa Tenggara (JP): Diarrhea has claimed 18 lives and hospitalized 740 people in the regencies of Timor Tengah Selatan and Belu over the past week, officials said yesterday.

The worst hit is Timor Tengah Selatan, where 13 people have died. Health officials blamed the high number of fatalities on locals who reported the illness "too late".

Timor Tengah Selatan regent Piet Sabuna said that the epidemic was caused by villagers' lack of cleanliness. Locals cannot kick their bad habit of drinking unboiled water, he added.

Sabuna, local military chief Lt. Col. Adnan M. and chief of the local health office Markus Righuta visited the stricken areas on Tuesday.

The regency administration has sent in medical supplies and ordered health workers to stay alert round-the-clock until the epidemic is brought under control.

The first case was reported on Feb. 20 but the authorities were notified only four days later when 13 people had died.

In Belu regency, the illness had claimed five lives and another 700 people were still in hospital, regent Servatius Muti Parera said.

The illness swept the subdistricts of West Malaka and East Malaka.

When visiting one of the affected subdistrict earlier this week, Parera asked villagers to promote cleanliness and stop their habit of eating uncooked prawns with vinegar.

The regency government has planned to embark on an information campaign aiming at improving people's awareness of cleanliness. (yac)