Volunteers replace students in fight against dengue fever
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Thirty-eight residents of Pasar Minggu subdistrict, South Jakarta, formed a team of volunteers on Monday to battle the Aedes aegypti mosquito that carries the deadly dengue fever virus through a 30-minute inspection program.
The program, based on Gubernatorial Decree No. 2478/2004, has been implemented by students from universities throughout the city up until now. The program requires people to voluntarily provide 30 minutes of their time to clean their bathroom water storage containers every Friday between 9 a.m. to 9.30 a.m. to prevent outbreaks of dengue fever.
A professional association, the Public Health Scholars Association (IAKMI), held training sessions for interested members of the community at the Pasar Minggu subdistrict office. The sessions were aimed at enabling residents to take over the role of student health activists, who had spearheaded the dengue eradication campaign.
"Since December last year, 180 students have been volunteering in a weekly campaign against dengue fever in the Pasar Minggu subdistrict. In March, we started to think that the students' role could be taken over by members of the community because they are the ones who should be caring for their own health," said Husein Habsyi, the chairman of the department for community involvement of IAKMI.
The training was organized in cooperation with the Pasar Minggu Community Health Center and sponsored by Bank Ekspor Indonesia, which provided Rp 30 million in cash to support IAKMI's initiative.
Out of the 40 persons invited to the training, 38 delegates, from 10 Community Units across Pasar Minggu subdistrict, attended the three-hour training session to learn how to mobilize people to join the 30-minute program.
Pasar Minggu subdistrict was chosen as the first place to hold the training because, according to data from the Pasar Minggu Community Health Center, the area has the highest number of cases of dengue fever each year, compared to others areas across the Pasar Minggu district.
Head of the Pasar Minggu Community Health Center, Sulasmi A. Basha, said that Pasar Minggu subdistrict had 732 cases of dengue in 2004.
"But thanks to the 30-minute program, the number is declining this year. By March, there were only 45 cases found, while in the same month last year there were 208 cases," said Sulasmi, addressing the trainees on the dengue fever situation in the district.
Arif Pramono, one of the 38 participants who attended the training, said that Sulasmi's briefing motivated him to take immediate steps to prevent more people getting infected by the virus.
"If Cuba was successful in eradicating dengue fever within three years, insya Allah (God willing) we can make it in a one- and-a-half years," said Arif, who is also a member of the Community Unit administrative staff.
Cuba was the model for the 30-minute campaign, which was conducted by sounding alarms in residential areas to remind residents to take the standard preventive measures to fight dengue: cleaning water storage containers once a week, covering water containers and burying unused items. (006)