Volunteers replace students in fight against dengue fever
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)