Regional administrations urged to combat malaria
A. Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government has asked regional administrations to participate intensively in the fight against malaria, which has returned due to the prolonged economic crisis and social conflicts.
"We (the central and local governments) should join hand-in- hand to eradicate malaria," I Nyoman Kandun, an expert staff of the Ministry of Health, said at a seminar on malaria and poverty here.
Kandun attributed the reemergence of malaria, which had previously been declared vanished in most parts of the country, to the decline in health services and environmental quality as a result of the economic crisis that has plagued the country since 1997.
He said continuing social conflicts in some parts of Indonesia had also decreased the quality of life and contributed to the return of the disease.
Since the economic crisis started, malaria has killed 40,000 people on average, with endemic areas covering 65 percent of the country's 416 regencies and municipalities.
Almost all regencies in Papua and East Nusa Tenggara are still affected by the disease.
Regional autonomy is also believed to have contributed to difficulties the country faces in combating malaria, as most regional administrations have concentrated on economic and revenue-generating programs, instead of health services.
Another speaker at the seminar, Central Java Governor Mardiyanto, supported Kandun's theory.
He said last year, the number of poor people in the province increased to 23.06 percent of its 7.3 million population, while malaria cases went up to 1.79 per 1,000 people, from only 0.33 per 1,000 people over the same period in 1997.
Intensified poverty eradication programs this year managed to reduce the number of cases to 1.44 per 1,000 people.
Meanwhile, Simeulue Regent Darmili said his regency had allocated Rp 14.19 billion (US$1.6 million) of its Rp 119 billion budget toward health services this year, up from Rp 12 billion last year.
"We hope the increase will help us eradicate malaria," he said. Fifty percent of Simeulue island, located off Aceh, is vulnerable to malaria.
This year, malaria outbreaks occurred along Java's southern coast, such as in Cilacap and the Manoreh highlands in Central Java.
The disease has also emerged in forest and swampy areas recently, affecting villages in Indragiri Hilir regency, Riau, and claiming 37 lives. Malaria has also hit villages in the Minahasa, Bolaang Mongondow and Sangihe Talaud regencies in North Sulawesi, which recorded over 450,000 malaria cases last year.
Malaria symptoms include high fever, headache and vomiting that last from nine to 14 days.