Parents up in arms over dengue

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Alex and Yati had been overjoyed that they could finally afford to raise their daughter in Jakarta, instead of leaving her in the care of her grandparents in Wonosobo, Central Java, but that feeling was short-lived.

On Monday, her 10th day in the capital, six-year-old Lidyawati lay on a cot in a corridor of Tarakan Hospital, the needle of a drip protruding from her pale wrist.

"She has a fever, vomits frequently and suffers nose bleeds," said Yati, who was visibly shaken. "The doctor says she has dengue."

"She just moved in with us," said the mother, who washes clothes for a living. "We were so happy -- and now this."

Alex, 25, who is employed as a construction worker, can still not believe that his family was exposed to the disease, which can be fatal, since they had taken several precaution such as putting mosquito repellent lotion on their child at night and burning mosquito coils.

"I guess it was not enough," said Alex, adding that his neighborhood in Cideng, Central Jakarta, had not yet been fumigated.

"Why do they wait until there is a victim?" asked Alex, looking puzzled. "Why can't they just fumigate all the neighborhoods?"

The virus of dengue hemorrhagic fever is transmitted through the bites of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is most active two hours after sunrise and at dusk.

There are four distinct but related strains of the dengue virus. Having been infected by one strain offers no immunity against infection by another.

Although the administration has launched public campaigns on preventing dengue outbreak during the wet season, all-out measures have not yet been taken to stop the endemic, which would include fumigation to kill the adult mosquito, eliminating open standing water containers, or treating stored water with Abate, a chemical that prevents larvae from developing into adult mosquitoes.

At least 18 people have died this year of dengue and 1,950 people have contracted the virus -- mostly children.

Tini, 36, said that unlike in previous years, her neighborhood in Kota Bambu, West Jakarta, had not been fumigated. However, she and her neighbors routinely drained and cleaned the gutters, once every two weeks.

"Initially I didn't suspect Nurajizah had dengue because she had no red spots on her skin," said the mother of the 10-year- old, who was sleeping two beds down from Lidyawati. "I guess dengue, like fashion, comes in many different styles," the seamstress said.

The children have to sleep in the corridor because the hospital wards are already full with dengue patients.

"This is the first time in days that she can rest peacefully," said her mother, Tini, looking relieved. "Last night she was shivering and started to call out her school friends' names."

Tini, who lives just behind Harapan Kita Hospital, said she had not been aware before her daughter's admission to Tarakan, which is over two kilometers away from their home, that Harapan Kita also provided free treatment.

Both Tarakan and Harapan Kita are among the 17 hospitals that the city administration has instructed to provide free care for dengue patients.

"I thought that care at Harapan Kita would be too expensive," said Tini.

Even the decision to take Ijah to a hospital posed a problem for Tini, who is a widow. "If my daughter had anything other than dengue, such as typhoid, we would have had to cover all the hospital bills," she said.