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.