No data on chikungunya patients

SALATIGA, Central Java: The government had yet to collect data on those people who had contracted chikungunya, a mosquito-borne disease, Minister of Health Achmad Sujudi said on Saturday.

"However, what is most important is that all districts and villages work hand in hand to destroy the breeding places of the mosquitoes that carry the disease," Sujudi said after inaugurating a tuberculosis hospital here on Saturday.

He said that to fight the disease, which is spread by Aedes Albopictus mosquitoes, all regency administrations were asked to put aside between Rp 400 million (US$44.9 thousand) and Rp 500 million from their budgets to handle possible epidemics within their respective jurisdictions. --Antara