Diarrhea kills 50 in W. Kalimantan
JAKARTA (JP): Up to 50 people have died from diarrhea in West Kalimantan with limited access to clean water cited as the major cause, the Antara news agency reported yesterday.
The West Kalimantan Health Office said that nearly 43,000 people affected by the virus are now hospitalized in various cities in the province.
Ketapang Regency is the worst effected area with 30 people dead, followed by Sanggau with nine people, Sambas with eight people, Pontianak two and Sintang one.
Health Office chief Sri Astuti said, however, that the authorities will not declare a state of emergency in the area, stressing that diarrhea is endemic in West Kalimantan during long dry spells.
The problem will remain as long as people in the area continue to have problems getting clean water, she said.
A number of people who managed to leave Pontianak recently said the thick haze covering a large portion of the province has added to the health hazards with many people complaining of breathing and eye problems. (emb)
;JP;ALS; ANPAc..r.. News-highlight Finearts-competition The Philip Morris Awards winners JP/2/Highlight-FINEART
The Philip Morris Awards winners
JAKARTA (JP): Nyoman Erawan of Gianyar, Bali, has won first prize in the Philip Morris Group of Companies Indonesian Art Awards 1994 for his creation called Kalpataru, or tree of hope and welfare.
Jim Supangkat, a member of the jury, told The Jakarta Post yesterday that Sunaryo, from Bandung, who created Ikan dan Bubu (fish and fishing net), Asri Nugroho Nus Pakurimba, from Surabaya, for Jesus Penebus (Jesus the Redeemer), Sugiarso Widodo, from Surabaya, for Structure of Metals and I Gusti Agung Gede Mangu Putera, from Yogyakarta, for Imajinasi Bawah Laut (Undersea imagination) won the second, third, fourth and fifth prizes respectively.
The jury also awarded special prizes to five other finalists: Ugo Untoro, Hening Purnamawati, Sigit Santosa, Deden Sambas and Gus Ballon.
Jim said the five winners' creations will represent Indonesia in the Philip Morris Group of Companies ASEAN Art Awards 1994 in Singapore.
The Indonesian section of the Philip Morris Art Awards is organized in cooperation with Yayasan Senirupa Indonesia (the Indonesian Fine Arts Foundation). (als)
;AFP;VIN; ANPAc..r.. India-plague Plague outbreak to peak in next few days JP/2/plague
Plague outbreak to peak soon
NEW DELHI (AFP): The number of suspected pneumonic plague cases in the Indian capital soared past 200 yesterday, but a top health service official predicted the outbreak should peak in the next few days before tapering off.
State health secretaries were meeting in New Delhi, meanwhile, to draw up a comprehensive strategy to tackle the outbreak, which has left 50 people dead in western India and two here in the national capital.
Alok Mukherjee, director-general of India's health services, told reporters that the number of plague cases should reach a peak in the next four or five days before declining.
"It seems we are about to reach the peak," he said. Indian health officials have predicted that the country should be free of the disease within 10 days.
Confirmed plague cases have been reported in six of India's 25 states and the capital, where newspapers said more than 200 people had been admitted to hospitals with plague-like symptoms.
Only around 20 of the patients in hospitals here have been confirmed, however, as actually suffering from pneumonic plague, a highly infectious disease which attacks a victim's lungs.
Delhi Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said the city's hospitals had been told to set up isolation wards for plague victims.
Schools and movie theaters have been closed here until at least October 15 as a precaution and the government has canceled public functions for the next four days.
The cabinet of Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao reviewed the situation on Friday, officials said, and decided that adequate measures were being taken to control the plague outbreak.
There was no need for "panic or alarm," they said, and there were sufficient stocks of antibiotics to fight the easily curable disease.