Public action urged to prevent dengue fever

Public action urged to prevent dengue fever

JAKARTA (JP): Head of the city health agency Asman Lasman said
the public does not understand the importance of preventing
dengue fever.

Unless the people themselves start eliminating potential
breeding spots for the aedes aegypti mosquito, which carries the
arbovirus that causes the disease, the number of dengue fever
cases this year could reach around 5,000 like last year, Asman
said yesterday.

He said trouble spots are containers of clear standing water,
such as vases placed on graves, discarded bottles and cans, and
the bathtubs and other reservoirs left full but unattended at
schools during the holidays.

He added that a high number of cases usually occurs in June
and July because rain falls sporadically, leaving behind pools of
water.

The aedes aegypti mosquito, which is active during the day,
lays its eggs in fresh standing water.

Asman refused to cite the exact number of dengue fever cases
reported in the city from January to June this year.

"There is an average of one case per month in each subdistrict
throughout the year," he said.

There are 265 subdistricts in Jakarta. One percent of the
people contracting dengue fever die.

Asman said that as of the middle of June, the figure for
dengue fever cases in Jakarta remained below that of last year.

City Hall's public relations office has requested that figures
on dengue fever cases not be released because this might
negatively affect tourism, Asman said.

On June 3, the Director General of Communicable Disease
Control and Environmental Health of the Ministry of Health, Hadi
M. Abednego, reported more than 5,000 cases of dengue throughout
Indonesia's 27 provinces in the first five months of this year.
He said Jakarta ranked second, behind East Java, with 1,880
people hospitalized and 28 deaths in that period.

Dengue fever is considered endemic to 259 of Jakarta's 265
subdistricts, meaning that one or more cases of the fever have
been found in these subdistricts for three consecutive years.

Staff members at the health agency said reports of dengue
fever cases are coming in almost daily.

A nurse at Cikini hospital in Central Jakarta, who asked not
to be identified, said several patients have been admitted there
for dengue fever recently. A doctor treating a patient for the
disease there said admissions for dengue fever were occurring in
hospitals across the city.

Health ministry data indicates that in the last six months,
East Jakarta has recorded the highest number of dengue fever
patients, of which 20 have died.

Asman said the medical staff of all hospitals are trained in
recognizing dengue symptoms, which are similar to those of the
flu in its initial stages. He added that they are also adept at
managing the fever.

Mira, a former dengue fever patient, told The Jakarta Post
that she was variously diagnosed as suffering from typhoid fever,
ulcer problems and stress in the three examinations she had
before she was admitted to a hospital in serious condition.

"The fourth doctor I saw checked to see whether I had had the
telltale sign of a rash, which other doctors at a hospital
emergency unit in East Jakarta did not do," she said.

The symptoms of dengue fever are: a high fever that lasts from
two to seven days, a rash which may appear only briefly a few
days after the fever begins, bleeding from the nose, the
vomiting of blood, abdominal pain, and, once the disease is
advanced, signs of shock, such as clamminess of the extremities.

Asman stressed that dengue does not differentiate between rich
and poor areas, or age, though statistics show victims are mostly
youngsters.

He said spraying by officials only kills adult mosquitoes,
while mosquito eggs are hard to detect.

He said the best way to prevent dengue fever is to "Close all
open water containers, or to mix Abate powder, which can be
purchased at pharmacies, into standing water to kill the larvae,"
he said, adding that his agency has issued a brochure listing
ways to prevent the disease.

Eliminating the aedes aegypti mosquito's breeding ground is
the only way to curb the spread of the fever as a vaccine has not
been found.

Treatment of the disease centers around lowering the fever and
containing the damage done by hemorrhaging.

In response to warnings that everyone is vulnerable, members
of the Association of Real Estate Developers have helped to
circulate the health agency's brochures, Asman said.

He also said the agency plans to research the causes of a
shift in the outbreak pattern of dengue fever that has been
observed since 1990. Between 1990 and 1995 the outbreak cycle of
the disease peaked every two years, instead of every five years,
which had been the pattern previously. (anr)