President to spearhead antimosquito campaign

President to spearhead antimosquito campaign

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

The government will introduce next week an intensive mosquito
eradication campaign in an effort to stop the spread of dengue
fever, which has killed 120 people in six provinces, according to
a minister.

The six provinces have since been put an high alert.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will lead the campaign, in
which he will be filmed either ridding his house or office of
possible breeding places of the aedes aegypti mosquito, the
vector of the dengue virus.

Minister of Health Siti Fadilah Supari said that such a
campaign had been effective in Cuba, which managed to reduce
dengue fever cases to zero.

She said the campaign would initially be launched in Jakarta,
which once again has borne the brunt of the current dengue
outbreak.

"The campaign is aimed at encouraging public participation to
eradicate aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which transmit the disease,
and its eggs. The government can do nothing to stop the disease
from spreading without the support of the people to clean up
their environment," she told the press after a meeting with
Susilo at the presidential office.

"People must work together to eradicate the disease," she
said, adding that cleaning one's local environment would be on a
voluntary basis.

Siti said Susilo had devised the nationwide campaign after
visiting a number of patients in a Jakarta hospital. She was
unable to provide a general outline of the campaign.

"Maybe there will be sirens or kentongan to inform people to
clean their environment together," Siti said.

Asked on why the government was only just launching such a
campaign despite dengue outbreaks occurring annually, Siti said
her office had introduced a TV campaign in November.

"I've been on television since November, but people haven't
paid any attention," Siti said, adding that the eggs of the aedes
aegypti were laid in clean water and the current rainy season in
most parts of the country increased the locations that the
mosquitoes could lay eggs.

She said the number of dengue patients as of Thursday totaled
5,064 and 120 deaths, but added that the number of dengue
patients in February last year was much higher at 20,000 and 280
deaths.

The Ministry of Health recently declared a dengue emergency in
six provinces, namely Jakarta, West Java, East Kalimantan, South
Sulawesi, West Nusa Tenggara and East Nusa Tenggara, which were
among the 12 provinces hardest hit last year.

Under the emergency, state hospitals must treat dengue
patients in third-class wards for free.

Elsewhere, Siti said the government was ready to disburse Rp
150 billion to finance the medication of destitute dengue
patients.