Hot line for dengue fever

JAKARTA (JP): A hot line service for Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF) has been set up by the state telecommunications company PT Telkom in cooperation with Lahsi (Lembaga Aksi Hidup Sehat Indonesia), a non-governmental organization specializing in health information services.

Volunteers from Lahsi provide a 12-hour service from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day, giving detailed information about the disease and steps to prevent the disease from becoming fatal.

Based on data from the city's public health agency, 5,568 people were affected by DHF last year and it was estimated that treatment cost Rp 3 billion per month.

"This is just a rough calculation. I think throughout 1996, the number of sufferers and financial losses may be much higher than that," M. Nasser, head of Lahsi, said over the weekend.

Besides the DHF hot line at (021) 8379-2222, Telkom also provides an AIDS hot line at (021) 3903838, Marriage Consultancy hot line at (021) 3457444 and a National Development hot line at (021) 3857974. (07)