Purwokerto best in antidengue movement
JAKARTA (JP): Purwokerto, a small town in Central Java, has acquired the world's recognition in health care for its success in preventing and controlling the epidemic of dengue fever through a community participation program.
No single case of dengue has been found in the town for the past six months, thanks to a well-knit partnership between local administration and the community in particular and with the help of the Rotary International organization.
Speaking in a meeting with Minister of Health Achmad Sujudi here on Monday, WHO representative Duane J. Gubler suggested that the government adopt the Purwokerto's program as a model for a nation-wide dengue eradication movement.
Gubler is a member of a WHO team which since June 5 has visited several cities in Indonesia to evaluate the antidengue program.
He said one of the keys to success of the program in Purwokerto was the initiative of local government officials to make a door-to-door visits to the houses of residents to show what larvae of the Aedes aegypty mosquito, the carrier of dengue, looked like.
According to him, the method was more effective than giving speeches or displaying pictures of the mosquito.
The family welfare team (PKK) also succeeded in calling on housewives to be aware of the disease by breaking the mosquitoes life cycle through a preventative movement called 3M, the Indonesian acronym referring to scrubbing and closing of household water tanks and buckets, and burying of used cans.
In response to Gubler's advice, Achmad said the government will promote the program in 10 other cities, such as Yogyakarta, the Central Java capital of Semarang and North Sulawesi's capital Manado.
The ministry of health has secured financial support from Rotary International worth US$25,000 for the successful program, he said.
"Of course the implementation will be different in every area, depending on the climate. But the substance is the same," he said.
In areas with an abundant source of water, Achmad said, the 3M movement is the best to adopt.
"Breeding the larva's predator fish in water tanks is also effective, as residents in Palembang have proven," he said in reference to the South Sumatra capital.
In Jakarta, Achmad said, the 3M movement is also more effective than fumigation or fogging.
"Fumigation costs a lot of money and is difficult to implement as houses in Jakarta are closed to one another and each house is commonly resided by many people," he said.
Achmad called on people to maintain their awareness of dengue despite the relatively low annual death rate resulting from the disease. Between 700 and 750 people, 60 percent of them children, out of between 20,000 and 25,000 patients die from dengue every year.
Gubler challenged the government to bring down the rate further to 500. (09)