Students bite back in dengue war

Students bite back in dengue war

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

It was half past nine in the morning. Mujtahid, a student at a
public health university, rushed into the Pasar Minggu
subdistrict health clinic in South Jakarta to inform the doctor
on duty that groups of students were ready to start their regular
Friday battle against the Aedes aegypti mosquito.

"Doctor, my friends are waiting in the community secretariat.
Some groups have already gone down to neighborhoods in the north.
We must hurry, I'm afraid we're going to be late," worried
Mujtahid, who had been appointed group coordinator from the Hamka
Muhammadiyah University, South Jakarta.

The voluntary task force consists of students, a doctor, and a
concerned people from the neighborhood. When they got together
Mujtahid gave a short briefing to remind them how to approach
residents in order to involve them in the effort to eradicate
breeding places for the mosquito that carries the dengue fever
virus.

"Okay, we shall start from neighborhood five. Are we ready?"
shouted Mujtahid to motivate his fellow students.

Mujtahid was among 150 students from three different
universities in Jakarta volunteering for the weekly campaign
against dengue in neighborhoods in the Pasar Minggu and West
Pejaten subdistricts of South Jakarta, every Friday, from 9:30
a.m. to 10 a.m.

Students from various universities and nursing academies in
Jakarta have joined forces to battle dengue fever, which has
infected over 3,000 Jakartans and caused 21 deaths since the
beginning of January. The volunteers have been encouraging
people, especially those living in endemic areas, to apply a few
simple actions to fight the disease.

Firstly, the students invite neighborhood and community
leaders to sound the neighborhood alarms to announce their
arrival.

Then, going door to door, the students hand out brochures,
informing people about the three steps they should take to
eliminate the Aedes aegypti mosquito's breeding places. They then
take brief tours of homes to help residents identify problem
areas and to show them how to take preventive actions.

The students also put up posters and banners in public areas,
which they hope will make more people aware of how to fight
dengue fever.

According to Mujtahid, most people focus on the environment in
and around houses and tend to forget that other places, such as
schools, old theaters or warehouses, also provide fertile
breeding grounds for the mosquitoes that lay their eggs in clear
standing water.

"Last week, I found several empty cans and plastic containers
dumped at the back of a schoolyard in Pasar Minggu. Inside, there
were dozens of mosquito larvae," said Mujtahid.

Another student said that she had seen a very bad mosquito
breeding place during her volunteer work.

"There was a small house I went into, located in an alley in a
slum area. The house was so damp and dimly-lit, and I think the
owner of the house was kind of sick. When I checked the water tub
and other water containers, I found hundreds of mosquito larvae.
After seeing that, I couldn't eat," she said.

Yunita, a fourth year student at the Department of Public
Health of the University of Indonesia in Depok, along with seven
university friends who also joined the campaign, said that many
people still lacked awareness and had little concern about
fighting the annual dengue epidemics.

"We checked back at some of the houses that were full of
mosquito breeding places the first time, and they still have
them. That showed that people living there weren't listening to
our advice," said Yunita. (001)