Jakarta declares war against rats

Ahmad Junaidi and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In response to the deaths of nine people by leptospirosis, a disease spread by rats, Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso declared war on the city's rat population on Friday.

"We have to make every effort to eradicate the rats because they are very dangerous," Sutiyoso told worshipers in a mosque in Lemah Abang, Bekasi, following Friday prayers.

He ordered the City Health Agency to distribute brochures about leptospirosis, and urged residents to go to a hospital for free medical treatment if they showed symptoms of the disease.

Early symptoms of leptospirosis are high fever and vomiting. The disease has an average incubation period of 10 days.

The deaths of the nine victims was blamed in part on their failure to seek immediate medical treatment. Most of the victims were elderly people who may have thought they just had a common fever.

In his comments, Sutiyoso did not address the fact that the piles of untransported garbage across the city were helping to increase the rat population.

Separately, the head of the City Environmental Office, Kosasih Wirahadikusumah, suggested that people kill rats manually, rather than using poison or other chemicals.

"Using poison can cause other problems and environmental damage," he said.

He revealed that the number of rats in the city had increased sharply because the overuse of pesticides on farms outside the city had driven the rodents into Jakarta.

Sutiyoso's declaration of war on rats came after the battle had already been taken up by city residents responding to reports on leptospirosis, which began to emerge on Tuesday.

But because of a lack of information on how to kill the rats safely, many people were using poison.

Several people who live near the Ciliwung River in Kampung Melayu, East Jakarta, were engaged in the war on rats early on Friday morning. Armed with machetes and mousetraps, they killed dozens of rats, which they burned or buried.

"We heard that the urine of rats caused the deaths of several people," said Supar, one of those engaged in the hunt.

According to Supar, the residents were on the alert because a number of them had suffered from diarrhea and dengue fever after the recent flooding.

"We don't want any more diseases, so we must kill them (the rats)," he asserted.

Rozak, a community neighborhood head in the area, said there also was a campaign to clean up the postflood garbage piled up in the area.

"Garbage is a source of various diseases so we must clean it up," he said, adding that the residents often found rats in garbage heaps.

Some residents had put up rattraps near a garbage dump in the area. They were not using poison, they said, because they did not have the money to purchase it.

In Kampung Bali, Central Jakarta, subdistrict officials were paying residents Rp 1,000 (10 US cents) for every rat they caught and killed.

The leptospire bacteria that causes leptospirosis is not only spread by rat urine. The urine of cats, cockroaches, chickens and rabbits can also spread the disease, although the possibility of this is small, according to the City Health Agency.

Agency spokeswoman Evy Zelfino called on people to make sure their neighborhoods were clean and to remain alert for leptospirosis.

"But don't be afraid, antibiotics can cure the disease," she said.

At least 27 people have been treated at the city's hospitals for the disease, with six of these people still hospitalized.