Malaria relapse

Malaria relapse

Mr. Mark Rees in his letter published in The Jakarta Post on
May 18 implies that my wife and I claim to have contracted
malaria at the Tanjung Lesung Resort Hotel. One wonders whether
such a misinterpretation was deliberate; but most emphatically I
made no such claim. However, I can categorically state that we
did contract malaria at Tanjung Lesung. This assertion is based
on the opinion of doctors from the Asian Emergency Assistance and
the fact that my wife and myself have been nowhere else over the
past few months where malaria exists.

One wonders, however, why Mr. Rees is so defensive.

Mr. Rees claims that the incidence of malaria within the hotel
complex is "less than 0.09 percent Annual Parasite Index". Thus,
there is a risk, albeit it minimal. Yet, paradoxically, he states
that it is impossible to contract malaria in the hotel complex,
which is sprayed daily. What then is the risk if one dares to
venture outside the hotel complex?

Mr. Rees states that "Dr. Soesilo guarantees that since the
hotel opened there have been no cases of malaria and neither are
there ever expected to be". Surely, if cases of locally
contracted malaria are flatly denied without any investigations
being made, as mine has been, Dr. Soesilo and Mr. Rees are
unlikely ever to acknowledge the presence of malaria no matter
how prevalent it may be.

Mr. Rees correctly asserts that people are the main carriers
of malaria, but he wrongly implies that locals do not live within
a five-kilometer radius of the hotel. In fact there are numerous
huts near paddy fields less than two kilometers from the hotel
and still within PT Banten West Java's development area. Does Dr.
Soesilo test the occupants of these huts for malaria? How
exhaustive are his tests in any case, as finding infected blood
cells can be a very time consuming task? Furthermore and
interestingly, Mr. Rees did not refute my claim that even members
of the hotel's staff had died from malaria.

In order to resolve this matter and assure the public, I
challenge Mr. Rees to commission an entirely independent study of
the area and publish the results openly. This could perhaps be
done with the help of the World Health Organization and would
establish just how high is the true incidence of malaria in the
area. I would be very willing to provide such a study with my own
clear evidence of the presence of malaria.

FRANK RICHARDSON

Jakarta