Diarrhea, dengue claim two lives

Agus Maryono, The Jakarta Post, Tegal

Two people have been killed and hundreds more were hospitalized following an outbreak of diarrhea and dengue in Tegal, Central Java health officials said.

Sahid Basalamah, a spokesman for the Harapan Anda Islamic Hospital here, confirmed that 22-year-old Yuni from Jatibogor village, Suradadi district, died of dengue fever.

Meanwhile, Mustafa Kamal, 12, from Lemahdulur village, Adiwerna district, died of diarrhea in the hospital, he added.

More than 200 people, mostly children, have been treated at the Islamic hospital and the Kardinah General Hospital, both in the town of Tegal, over the past few weeks.

Joko Widiarto, spokesman for the Kardinah hospital, said that more than 100 people are currently being treated at the hospital, mostly suffering from dengue fever. Some of them have been treated since the middle of January.

Information from the two hospitals show that the number of patients suffering from the two diseases has increased significantly after Tegal and several other towns along Central Java's northern coast were hit by floods early this month.

Torrential rains have drenched areas in West, Central and East Java since the end of January, causing floods in many cities and towns, including Jakarta.

The floods have caused tens of thousands of people to flee their homes and find shelter in the camps.

Setyo, a medical record staff member at the Islamic hospital, said that Tuti died on the way home after she was released from hospital. He did not indicate as to why the dengue fever patient was released.