Upset public still demand fumigation to zap dengue

Upset public still demand fumigation to zap dengue

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The deadly dengue fever outbreak has led to a conflict between
residents and the city administration over the necessity of
fumigation.

While experts have repeatedly said that fumigation is not the
best way to deal with dengue, residents continue to demand the
administration fumigate their neighborhoods.

"City officials have never fumigated my house. I think that is
why my son is infected with dengue," said Yuli, whose 3-year-old
son is being treated at the city-run Budhi Asih Hospital in East
Jakarta.

Her comment was endorsed by other parents sitting with their
children in the hospital ward.

The director general of communicable diseases at the Ministry
of Health, Umar Fahmi, has repeatedly said fumigation is not
effective in fighting dengue because it only kills adult
mosquitoes, not their larvae.

He emphasized the importance of 3M -- draining open tanks,
covering clean water and burying or disposing of used cans, which
are breeding locations for the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes the
spread dengue.

But the health minister, Ahmad Sujudi, earlier announced the
ministry had spent Rp 6 billion (US$714,286) to purchase
insecticides for fumigation.

The Jakarta Health Agency has also spent much of its Rp 500
million dengue emergency fund from the ministry on the purchase
of spraying equipment.

Agency spokeswoman Evy Zelfino, however, said there was not
enough money to fumigate all of the neighborhoods in the capital.

"Due to limited funds, we will only be able to fumigate those
areas that are most likely to be breeding places for the
mosquitoes," she said, adding that the priority was being placed
on poorer neighborhoods.

Legal Aid Foundation for Health chairman Iskandar Sitorus
criticized the administration's slow reaction to the dengue fever
outbreak.

Although the administration has employed 800 mosquito larvae
monitoring officers to inform residents about the dangers of
danger and how to prevent the disease, the number of infected
people continues to rise.

According to the health agency, the number of dengue patients
in hospitals has reached 3,541 since early this year, with 939
more people admitted on Thursday. The number of fatalities has
reached 59.

Some patients are being treated in hospital corridors because
of overcrowding.

Umar stressed that as long as public awareness of the
importance of proper sanitation remained low, the disease would
continue to infect people year after year.