Dozens more suffer from epidemic in East Nusa Tenggara

Yemris Fointuna The Jakarta Post Kupang

The situation continued to worsen in four regencies of East Nusa Tenggara province as the number of people known to be infected by an unidentified epidemic, characterized by severe diarrhea, which has plagued 18 villages over the last several weeks, increased to 670 on Friday from 502 on Wednesday.

So far, the death toll is officially 41.

A majority of the infected people are undergoing intensive medical treatment in numerous public health centers and general hospitals in the province.

The regencies hit by the epidemic are all very remote areas, Belu, about 200 km east of Kupang, Manggarai in western Flores island, Sikka in eastern Flores and the small island of Alor.

According to the laboratory examination conducted by the local health administration, the diarrhea outbreak had been exacerbated by malnutrition and the poor environment.

Maxi M. Taopan, chief of the contagious disease handling section of the local health office, said according to the laboratory tests conducted on 4,549 patients with the severe diarrhea, 65 percent of them were suffering from malnutrition.

Combined with the change of season and the poor environment in the villages, the malnutrition had contributed to the outbreak, he said.

"But we have yet to identify specifically what triggered the outbreak," he admitted.

Meanwhile, Bria Yohannis, regent of the worst-hit area in Belu, said his administration has set up a medical team both to treat the patients and to fight against the epidemic to prevent it from spreading to other subdistricts.

The local branch of the Indonesian Christian Student Association (GMKI) has also been handing out medication free-of- charge in a number of subdistricts in the province to help local authorities fight against the epidemic.