No epidemic in Wamena: Minister

No epidemic in Wamena: Minister

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Health Sujudi yesterday denied media
reports that an outbreak of upper respiratory disease has killed
177 people in two districts in Wamena, Irian Jaya.

"There is no epidemic in Wamena," Sujudi told The Jakarta Post
by phone from Biak, northern Irian Jaya, where he was overseeing
the relief aid operation for victims of last month's earthquake.

Sujudi said a team investigating the reports found that the
death tolls suggested by the media were the accumulated number of
deaths in the two districts since November.

These deaths could not be attributed to any particular
outbreak of disease, he said, adding that their causes included
influenza, malaria, diseases of the respiratory tract, diarrhea.

The Ministry of Health sent a team from Jakarta to Wamena to
follow up on the report which first surface early this week.

Kompas daily, which broke the story, said 177 people died
because of health problems marked by difficulty in breathing and
vomiting blood. It quoted Jayawijaya Regent JB Wenas as saying
that medical help arrived too late because the reports came in
late owing to the difficult terrain.

Residents in the Ndugwa and Nongme villages, where the deaths
were reported, linked the fatalities to the recent deaths of pigs
in the area.

Sujudi said the number of deaths was still uncertain, and that
the ministry team from Jakarta is still investigating the matter.
(31)