Malaria outbreak kills eight

Malaria outbreak kills eight

KENDARI, Southeast Sulawesi: An outbreak of malaria has killed eight people and affected 700 others on Kadatua island in the Buton regency, Antara reported.

The Ministry of Health has sent a six-person team from the Directorate General for the Control of Communicable Diseases to investigate the case, the news agency said.

Ferdinan Y. Laihat, chief of the directorate's section concerned with malaria, is leading the team to the largely rocky island which is considered a fertile breeding ground for malaria- carrying mosquitoes.

Islanders said they first noted the disease in January.

The chief of Southeast Sulawesi Office of the Ministry of Health, Takahasi Rahmani, said the outbreak was caused by the falcifarum virus, which attacks the brain's nerves. "Unless they get medical help, people who are attacked by the virus can only survive two weeks at the most," he said. (emb)