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