No new dengue cases last week

JAKARTA (JP): City hospitals have not received any new dengue patients beginning last week, an official said Saturday.

City Health Office spokeswoman Maryani said the good news seemed to contradict a World Health Organization prediction that the country's dengue fever outbreak would peak in May and June.

"This (no new dengue patients) happened due to uncertainty of the seasons here this year and probably also from the tiny roles of the recent campaign to eradicate mosquito habitats," she said as quoted by Antara.

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are the carriers of the dengue virus.

The outbreak this year, she said, had killed 114 people out of 12,549 patients treated at the 63 hospitals throughout the city.

Last month alone, a total of 2,999 dengue patients were admitted to city hospitals compared to 6,900 sufferers treated in the previous month, she said. (bsr)