Minister wants national fight against dengue
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Health Farid Anfasa Moeloek urged the country's 27 provincial governors yesterday to step up efforts to fight an extraordinary outbreak of dengue fever, which has claimed 207 lives and left 7,585 hospitalized in the past few months.
The minister said use of mass fumigations was a short-term solution to preventing the spread of the mosquito-borne disease, and the best method was by eliminating the sites where the insects bred.
"Therefore, governors, regents, mayors and health officials need to be fully involved to promote a healthy and clean way of living," the minister said after attending a ministerial meeting on social welfare affairs in Jakarta.
The Ministry of Health termed this year's outbreak an "extraordinary incidence" in which fatalities had been recorded in 11 provinces. It warned it would likely continue until June.
Thomas Saroso, the official in charge of combating animal- transmitted diseases, said yesterday Jakarta was hardest hit, with at least 42 deaths and 3,900 hospitalized since January.
"The number of victims will continue to increase if mass fumigation operations are not regularly and thoroughly conducted," he was quoted as saying by Antara.
Apart from the capital, he said high numbers of cases were recorded in South Sumatra, South Sulawesi, North Sulawesi, Jambi, Lampung, Southeast Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, East Timor, West Nusa Tenggara and Maluku. The disease has been recorded in all provinces.
Treatment of sufferers has been hindered by lack of basic services, including hospital rooms and medicines, and poor living conditions.
Jakarta health officials said earlier this week the city's 99 hospitals and 474 public health centers were sufficient to treat all patients.
"Patients die because they do not get the proper treatment early on," Jakarta's health office spokeswoman Maryani said Sunday.
Plans
The government plans to fumigate up to 100 subdistricts in the capital this month. Jakarta recorded only 10 deaths from dengue fever throughout last year.
The virus is transmitted to humans by the aedes aegepty mosquito, a small black insect with white spots. It lives and breeds in clean water found in tanks or buckets, or in puddles of water dripping from airconditioners onto tiles or cement floors.
Preventive measures include regular draining and cleaning of water tanks, buckets, pet drinking bowls, vases and other open spaces which may serve as receptacles for water.
The disease was first discovered in Surabaya, East Java, and Jakarta in 1968.
Dengue fever, which has no vaccine, has a 10-day window period before symptoms become apparent.
Doctors often mistakenly diagnose it as flu, as both conditions are characterized by high fever. Medical experts say a blood test is the most effective means of diagnosis.
Other symptoms include a runny nose, lower abdominal pain, nosebleeds and a skin rash.
In Kudus, Central Java, seven people have died this year and 124 are hospitalized. Last year, 295 were hospitalized, with one fatality.
From Bali, Antara reported 117 cases, including six fatalities, up to March.
Denpasar recorded 117 cases, Buleleng and Badung 24 cases each, Karangasem 12, Gianyar 11 and Tabanan 1.
"Fatalities occurred because patients were not taken to hospital," said Wayan Semendra, the head of the province's ministry of health office.
In South Sumatra, 17 of 748 sufferers treated in March have died. Antara reported in February that 66 people died of dengue fever in the previous month.
In Jayapura, Irian Jaya, two children have died and 61 people have been hospitalized in the capital, and in Sorong and Fakfak regencies. (45/har/prb)