Knock! Knock! 'Jumantik' is here

Knock! Knock! 'Jumantik' is here

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

From next week one of your neighbors may knock on your door and
show you a glass jar containing mosquito larvae.

When this happens, you know they have been recruited by the
city administration as a jumantik (mosquito larvae monitoring
officer).

"The jumantik is assigned to inform residents of the danger of
dengue fever and tell them about how to prevent the outbreak. The
most important measure was to clean up still-water areas -- the
mosquitoes breeding ground," Minister of Health Achmad Suyudi
said at City Hall on Wednesday.

Suyudi and Governor Sutiyoso briefed representatives of 267
subdistricts on the administration's dengue policy.

About 800 jumantik will be on duty in communities around
Jakarta to curb the rapidly spreading fever. The recruits will
sign a one-year contract and get a monthly salary of Rp 750,000
(US$89).

Sutiyoso said recruiting the officers was the next step.

"However, public support is strongly needed in combating the
outbreak, otherwise our personnel will fail to communicate the
important information to the residents," he said.

It is impossible to vaccinate people against dengue.

"The only choice we have is to eradicate the carrier of the
dengue virus, the aedes aegypti mosquitoes, especially by
focusing on killing the mosquito larvae," he said.

Fumigating areas would not be enough to curb the outbreak
because it only killed adult mosquitoes.