People told to remain calm over epidemic

People told to remain calm over epidemic

YOGYAKARTA: Head of Yogyakarta provincial health office Azimah
Adib called on local people in the province on Thursday not to
panic over the outbreak of the epidemic chikungunya, saying that
it was not a lethal disease and that a healthy lifestyle would
help them avoid infection.

"Good nutrition and strong stamina are adequate for avoiding
the disease," Azimah told The Jakarta Post on the phone.

Azimah also said that the provincial health office had focused
its efforts mainly to improve the people's awareness of the
disease and to exterminate mosquitoes carrying the disease.

"We have ordered all health offices in the municipal and
regental levels to intensify their campaigns to prevent the
epidemic from spreading in the province," said Azimah, adding
that more field health personnel had been deployed to infected
areas in order to distribute information about the disease.

Chikungunya, first detected in Bandung, West Java, has
afflicted at least 400 people in Bantul regency and about 90 in
Bandung. The Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital in Jakarta is
still studying the disease and its causes.

No fatalities have been reported so far.

Azimah has claimed chikungunya to be a self-curing disease
that would eventually cure itself in seven days or so, depending
on the sufferer's physical condition. -- JP