Malaria prevalent in many villages

JAKARTA (JP): Malaria incidents have been declining in Indonesia and are now confined mostly to villages, health officials said yesterday.

"Currently, malaria is still found in 32 regencies in Java and Bali, and in 118 regencies on the outer islands," the director general for contagious disease control and settlement and environmental sanitation, Hadi M. Abednego, said at a seminar.

"Indonesian cities and towns are already free of the epidemic, with the exception of the outskirts of some eastern Indonesian towns like Jayapura, Sorong, Dili, Ambon and Kendari," he said in the seminar to review progress of the country's efforts to fight malaria.

A joint team from the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization, in a joint study, found that the number of people who were reported to have malaria in Indonesia declined from 7.59 million in 1993 to 4.26 million in 1995.

The study, which was presented at the seminar, distinguished between Java and Bali on one hand, and less-developed outer islands on the other.

In Java and Bali, the number of villages where there were incidents of malaria had not declined but the number of patients dwindled from 19 per 100,000 people in 1993 to six per 100,000 in 1995.

The report noted exceptional outbreaks of malaria in Nusa Penida in Bali in 1994, Jepara in Central Java in 1996 and this year, and in Tasikmalaya in West Java in 1996.

Areas most prone to malaria in Java and Bali were the southern coast of Java, areas bordering forests and hills, and rice fields.

On the outer islands, malaria cases were found at new settlement areas. Malaria incidents remain higher on the outer islands although the rate has declined from 2,051 per 100,000 people in 1993 to 1,913 in 1995, the report said. (09)