This year's dengue toll down

JAKARTA (JP): Until May 15 this year, the city had recorded 22 deaths from dengue fever out of 5,646 cases, an official disclosed on Wednesday.

Speaking on the sidelines of a ceremony to welcome a team from the World Health Organization (WHO) at City Hall, head of the city health agency Ahmad Harjadi said the number of fatalities this year was proportionally much lower than over the same period last year, in which 23 people died out of 1,488 cases.

It has also proven that the public's fear that the capital would be hit by an outbreak of dengue hemorrhagic fever of the same magnitude as 1998 was completely wrong, Ahmad said.

"We held a public campaign to increase residents' awareness, and took preventative action like fumigating the 55 subdistricts most prone to dengue fever," he added.

He said dengue cases reached a peak this year in March.

"The declining rate of rainfall played a significant role in helping to stop the disease from spreading," he said.

"The city administration allocated more than Rp 1 billion (US$ 121,000) to prevent any outbreak. Most of it was used to buy 40 barrels of insecticide at a cost of about Rp 768 million," he added.

In 1998's outbreak, official figures show a total of 133 deaths due to dengue fever out of 15,000 cases.

Last year, the number of deaths reached 45 people from 3,751 cases.

This year, East Jakarta was worst hit, with 1,907 cases and five fatalities, followed by North Jakarta (1,228 cases, five fatalities), South Jakarta (979 cases, six fatalities), West Jakarta (821 cases three fatalities) and Central Jakarta (711 cases, three fatalities).

The WHO team, led by D.G Gubler, is in town to evaluate Indonesia's dengue program.

Ahmad said it was easy to prevent the spread of the disease.

"We must stop anopeheles aegypty mosquitoes from laying their eggs. The mosquitoes carry the virus that causes the fever," he said, while reminding the public that mosquitoes like to lay eggs in clean, still water.

"That's why it's important to close water containers and periodically clean or bury them," he added. (07/nvn)