Effectiveness of fumigation questioned

JAKARTA (JP): City residents complained yesterday that fumigation efforts to fight the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, the carrier of the dengue fever virus, were largely ineffective.

The city health office announced yesterday that the number of dengue fever patients in Jakarta totaled 4,980 as of yesterday afternoon.

The outbreak's death toll currently numbers 50, it said.

Central Jakarta's Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital alone has reported 15 deaths from the fever in the period between April 9 and April 21.

The city is fumigating a number of areas in an attempt to blunt the quickening increase in dengue fever cases.

Residents of Menteng in Central Jakarta said, however, they were alarmed to see live mosquitoes only two hours after the city had fumigated the area.

"If there is nothing special in the spray to kill mosquitoes, then I regret that we all had to pay Rp 1,000 each for it," said Tati, 38, the grandmother of a dengue fever sufferer.

"Even ants and cockroaches were still alive after the fumigation," she added.

Soeparmo, head of the City Council Commission E for social welfare, expressed concern yesterday that residents had wrong perceptions about the fumigations.

He said many people believed that the fumigations would totally eradicate the Aedes Aegypti mosquito and thus rid them from the virus.

"They think that they can sleep easy because all mosquitoes are killed in a fumigation. They also think that there would be no way that they could get infected by the fever after their neighborhood is fumigated," he said.

"Well, we've got bad news for them. All those assumptions are wrong. Fumigations are certainly not that effective because they can't kill larva and embryos. So don't overly depend on it," said Soeparmo.

The head of the Menteng public health center, Paris Sibuea, shared Soeparmo's view, saying that it was important for residents to actively participate in the effort to eradicate the mosquitoes' habitat.

"The fumigations have no meaning if they're not followed by people's active participation. It only kills mature mosquitoes and has temporary effects," he said.

A massive campaign to clean up areas where mosquitoes breed is scheduled for Sunday, March 26. All residents from the city's five mayoralties are asked to participate.

Soeparmo also asked people to be patient if they wanted to have their areas fumigated because the city lacked the needed equipment. He said each district had only two sprayers each to carry out fumigations.

He also reiterated that dengue fever did not only affect slum areas as believed by some people.

Maryani, the public relations chief of the city's health office, said a survey conducted late last month indicated that 11 out of 34 hospitals examined contained sites where mosquitoes could easily breed.

"But it did not say whether the larva and embryos were of the Aedes Aegypti species," she said yesterday.

Maryani said that school buildings, especially restrooms, were also potential habitat for mosquitoes.

Soeparmo said the regular cleansing of water tanks, flower vases, buckets and other areas where water collected was the most important and effective method to break the mosquitoes' life chain. (ivy/ind/cst)