Living with dengue
Living with dengue
Dengue hemorrhagic fever, that treacherous mosquito-borne
disease that comes with little warning to torment the
unsuspecting, is with us again. Or so Jakarta's city health
office warns us.
It is easy enough to sneer at the warnings issued by health
officials about the dengue scourge. After all, many warnings that
have come from the bureaucracy have been either off the mark or
too late in coming to be of much help.
Unfortunately, though, the cold statistics reported in the
media in the past few weeks, courtesy of the Jakarta Public
Health Office, do indeed give reason to keep up our guard,
keeping in mind the truism that prevention is the best medicine.
This is especially true, given the alarming scale of the dengue
outbreak that hit parts of Jakarta during the first half of last
year.
In the space of just four days last week, the number of dengue
cases rose dramatically from 197 to 263, which is an increase of
66 new cases within that short time. Not an overly alarming
increase, one might say, considering that in February last year,
at the peak of the 2004 outbreak, 472 new cases emerged within
just three days, bringing the total to 2,518. But officials warn
that the current outbreak is likely to reach its peak only next
month, or possibly later.
February is the time of year when rainfall is at its highest
and dengue outbreaks usually reach their apex. Statistics for
2003 and 2004, however, clearly show that there is nothing
predictable about dengue outbreaks. Peaks can be reached well
beyond the month of February, as late as March or April, or even
May and June -- as happened in 2002, when 1,131 dengue cases
occurred in the month of May alone, and again in 2003, with 2,685
cases recorded in June and 1,070 more the following month.
While the dengue mosquito, Aedes aegypti, is ready to attack
anyone indiscriminately, dengue hemorrhagic fever primarily
afflicts the underprivileged living in poor and unkempt places
where all sorts of junk can be found for small pools and puddles
of clear water to form, providing a welcome breeding ground for
the mosquito.
Prevention of the disease, therefore, cannot be left to the
public health office or the medical profession alone, but must
involve the community as a whole. With that purpose in mind, the
Jakarta administration has issued a number of instructions for
public health officials to follow in the case of dengue
outbreaks, hopefully with the support of all of Jakarta's
citizenry.
The obvious first step is for every citizen and resident to
prevent the Aedes aegypti mosquito from breeding by cleaning up
their own immediate environment. Easy as this step may seem, few
households appear to be ready to comply with the health office's
instructions. Whether laziness or indifference is to blame, this
clearly demonstrates the need to educate the public in the
importance of clean living.
Overall, the work plan to fight the dengue outbreak this time
appears to be helpful enough, at least on paper. The strategy
calls for doctors and public health centers (Puskesmas) to
immediately report all cases of dengue in their area of
jurisdiction, even suspected cases, to the city public health
office, which will then instruct the Puskesmas to take wider
action.
If convincing evidence of dengue is found, health officers are
instructed to conduct further examinations to determine whether
or not the local case(s) pose a real risk in the neighborhood.
The health agency will then decide what action to take to prevent
the disease from spreading.
With all the necessary arrangements now seemingly in place,
all that Jakarta's citizenry can hope for is that this time
around the lessons of the past will have been learned and that
the plan will prove effective in attenuating the effects of the
current dengue outbreak on the populace. With the rainy season
currently peaking and floods threatening whole neighborhoods all
across the capital, Jakartans have no need for more catastrophes
to upset their lives and livelihoods.