PEOPLE WARNED AS DENGUE SPREADS IN NUMEROUS REGIONS

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Jan 30 (Antara) - In the current transitional period from the dry to the rainy season, dengue fever, which is caused by Aedes aegypti mosquito bites, has since early this month spread in many regions across the country.         The government has not revealed the exact number of deaths but has warned people of the endemic dengue fever threats, and has asked the health service offices in the regions, people and families to prevent the spread of the disease.         The Aedes aegypti mosquitoes could be eradicated, in among others ways, by cleaning their nests and the environment by applying the 3M mosquito eradication method. The three acts of eradicating dengue are drain open tanks, cover clean water, dispose unused water containers, according to Health Minister Nila F Moeloek.          She expressed hope that each family would become an eradicator of mosquito larvae because the number of health officials in the regions was limited, so that the participation of the people was badly needed.          Eradication of wigglers by each members of the family was very easy because it could be done by conducting the 3M method during the rainy season, Nila said. The government, in this case the health ministry, has also ordered all of its regional health service offices to conduct prevention efforts.

REGIONS ALERTED AS DENGUE DEATH TOLL REACHES TENS

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Feb 24 (ANTARA) - Health authorities  in many parts of Indonesia have alerted their respective  communities to the threat of dengue fever in the current monsoon season (January-March) with the disease having already killed tens of people and infected hundreds of others, mostly in East and West Nusa Tenggara provinces.          According to ANTARA reports, at least eight people had succumbed to the disease in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) and over 570  sufferers had to be hospitalized in West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) while in West Java's Taskimalaya,  local health officials have declared  dengue outbreaks  a pandemic.          Dengue fever cases have also been reported happening in other provinces such as East Java, North Sulawesi and Kalimantan.          The most affected province is West Nusa Tenggara. Since January, a total of 571 people had contracted the disease. Luckily however, no death has been registered in the province.          "The 571 patients are recorded in 10 districts,"  said Dr Ida Bagus Jelantik, head of West Nusa Tenggara Disease and Environmental Control Office said.           NTB's provincial capital of Mataram saw the biggest number of patients reaching 368, followed by West Lombok 52, East Lombok 46 and West Sumbawa 31 cases. Other cases were found in Central Lombok, Bima City, Sumbawa, Dompu, North Lombok and Bima.          In East Nusa Tenggara province, dengue fever has killed at least eight patients. The number of people who died of dengue fever, rose from five in January to eight.           The latest two deaths this weekend were Maria Tiara (9 months old), and another infant at Kobatoma village, Titehena sub district, East Flores District, NTT, Dr Stefanus Bria Seran, head of the NTT provincial health service, said. The seven fatalities were all children, he said.          Dengue fever has affected eight districts in NTT, including East Flores, Sikka, Kupang, Belu, Ende, Alor, and Nagekeo districts. In Sikka, there have been 251 cases of dengue fever, Kupang  279 cases, Belu 32 cases, Ende six cases, Alor eight cases, and Nagekeo  six cases with two children had died.          The East Nusa Tenggara authorities have declared the dengue fever outbreak in Kupang city and Sikka District as extraordinary happening.          In East Java, dengue fever has claimed the lives of at least 9 patients in  Mojokero, Madiun and Kediri.          In Mojokerto district alone, dengue fever killed four resident. The dengue virus has also infected 125 other residents, Head of Mojokerto's Disease Prevention and Surveillance, dr.Benhardy, said. "The only sub-districts which have remained free from the dengue fever attacks are Pacet and Trawas," he said.         The number of cases tended to keep increasing during the rainy season. Last week, victims were recorded at 110 patients but this week the number had increased to 125, he said.          "Learning from last year's experience, despite the end of rainy season (in April), the dengue fever will remain possible until May or June," he said.          In Kediri, the dengue fever had also killed at least two people last week. The victims were identified as Lorde Bintang S. and Anggoro. While in another East Java's town Madiun , dengue spread had also killed three people.          "Over the past two months, dengue has infected 66 residents, three of them had died," Head of Madiun's Disease Prevention and Surveillance office, Sulistyo Widyantono, said.          Dengue fever last year killed only two victims in the January-February period. But last year, the number of dengue patient in the same period in this city reached 193.          In the meantime,  the West Java district  of Tasikmalaya's health authorities have declared dengue fever cases a pandemic in three subdistricts during the ongoing rainy season.          The dengue fever-affected subdistricts were Tawang, Cihideung and Cipedes, Head of Tasikmalaya's disease surveillance and environmental health, Hasni Mukti, said here Tuesday.          "Most of the dengue fever patients were found in the three subdistricts," he said. In January 2010, there were 97 dengue fever cases in the three subdistricts. The number was higher than that of the same period in 2009, which was recorded at 93, he said.          Mukti said the health authorities found 1,100 dengue fever cases in the regency last year. January, February and March were the peak months of this Aedes mosquitoes-caused disease.          The subdistricts of Tawang, Cihideung and Cipedes had been the dengue fever endemics since 1997 because majority of the patients were from there out of 10 subdistricts in Tasikmalaya, he said.          In other West Java town of Cimahi, residents were warned of the danger of dengue fever out break, pending the peak of the rainy season in February and March 2010.  "The peak of the rainy season may occur in January, February to March this year, during which dengue cases may increase during that time, and the general public had been urged to watch it out," Deputy Director of Cibabat general hospital Huzen Rachman said.          According to the Cibabat hospital, in mid-December 2009 there were 45  cases per day, which in mid-January 2010 increased to 60 per day. Cases in Cimahi in 2009 reached 2,026, with seven deaths, while in 2008 the cases reached only 1,250 with six deaths.          Death cases in dengue outbreak in the current rainy season are also found in Kalimantan.          In South Kalimantan provincial capital Banjarmasin, four people died of dengue infection since January this year.  All of the death victims were infants or children under five years old, according to the head of South Kaliantan Health Service, Diah R P.          In Central Kalimantan, five  have died of dengue fever. "The death cases happened after the extraordinary happening was declared early last month,"  Wineini Marhaeni Rubay of the Central Kalimantan Health Service said.          In the meantime, in Manado, North Sulawesi, a total of 40 patients have been affected by the spread of dengue fever while in  Ambon, Maluku Province,  a five year old child has also died of the disease.      (T.A014/A/HAJM/15:30/A/O001) feb 24, 2010

PEOPLE BEING ALERTED TO DENGUE FEVER THREAT

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Jan 14 (ANTARA) - Though the number of people suffering from dengue fever in 2008 was lower than in 2007, the public in many parts of Indonesia has been alerted to the possibility of sudden outbreaks of the deadly disease as the epidemic is expected to peak in February.

        "We will give speedy responses to the need of preventing the spread of dengue fever in any region following the outbreak of the disease early this year," the head of the Jakarta Health Office, Dien Emawati, said.

        Data at the Jakarta health office indicated that the number of people contracting dengue fever in Jakarta has risen since last October.

        A total of 956 Jakarta residents were recorded to have been infected in October. The figure increased to 1,052 in November and to 1,577 in December.

        Dengue patients at the Fatmawati Hospital in South Jakarta, for example, had begun to increase as weather conditions became uncertain, Fatmati Hospital spokesman Atom Kadam said on Monday.

        He said the number of dengue patients this week could increase to 78 while the hospital had a capacity to accommodate a maximum of only 70 dengue patients.

        In order to serve the increasing number of dengue patients, Fatmawati Hospital had begun using folding beds but only for 50 patients. If dengue patients continued to increase the hospital would try to borrow beds e from other institutions, he said.

        Actually, the number of dengue cases in Jakarta in 2008 which stood at 27,400 showed a decline if compared with that in 2007, when at least 31,836 people suffered from the fever. The death toll in dengue outbreaks in 2008 which was recorded at 26 had also dropped compared with that in 2007 when the disease killed 86 patients.

        Yet, residents are reminded to remain alert as the degue fever cycle would peak in February 2009.

        Fatmawati Hospital's chief spokesman Atom Kadam predicted the dengue fever epidemic would peak in February. He said the number of patients had begun to increase this month.

        An increase in the number of people contracting dengue fever was also noted in West Java province. At the Al Islam Hospital the number of dengue patients in January was up 100 percent from the figure in December 2007.

        "Up till yesterday, we admitted a total of 581 patients consisting of children and adults," Dr Rita Herawati, deputy director for medical care affairs of the Al Islam hospital, said on Tuesday.

        She said the figure in January was far higher than that in December when there were only 225 patients.

        Herawati even said the public health authorities should declare the outbreaks as "extraordinary incidents" (KLB) and also called on residents to help conduct a prevention program locally called 3-M or three acts to eradicate dengue, namely drain open water tanks, cover clean water and dispose of unused water containers.

        She said preventive efforts were needed in the face of the peak of the epidemic in February.

        Head of the disease prevention and eradication section of the West Java Health Office Dr Fetty Sugiharti said dengue outbreaks in West Java would peak in January and February.

        The health office had data showing that there were 160 dengue cases in 2008 or more than 100 percent less than in 2007 when there were 350 cases.

        An upward trend in dengue cases was also recorded in Banten province. At least 113 people had contracted dengue fever since last November, and one of them had died, a local health official said.

        "The health office has recorded an increase in the number of dengue fever cases in Banten," Tien Suhartini of the Banten health office said here on Tuesday. In Rankasbitung alone, a total of 39 dengue fever sufferers had been admitted to the Misi Hospital in the past two weeks, she said.

        "This hospital has handled 51 dengue fever patients over the past two weeks. Twelve of them are still being intensively treated while 27 others have been allowed to go home," Darya, an administration official of Misi Hospital, said.

        Calls for alertness over the dengue spread were also made by the health office of Kediri district in East Java province.

        "In observing the dengue's annual cycle, we notice there has been an upward trend in dengue cases since October last year," Nur Munawaroh of the health service said.

        She said there were 462 dengue patients in 2008, of whom six died. Most of the cases took place in January, namely 185 but down to 77 in February.

        In Madiun, another distict in East Java, dengue killed eight people in 2008. The chief of Madiun's Health Office, Soelistyo Widyantono, said the 2008 figure was far lower than that in 2007.

        In 2008, there were 289 sufferers of whom eight died while in 2007 there were 421 residents who contracted the disease but there were only seven fatalities.

        Bigger numbers of cases in East Java were recorded in Sumenep, Madura, where there were 570 cases in 2008. It represented a decline if compared with 2007 when there were 971 cases.

        In Sumatra, the number of dengue cases also showed an downward trend, particularly in Medan, North Sumatra province. The death toll in the epidemic in North Sumatra was down from 17 in 2007 to seven only in 2008.

        The total number of dengue cases was 1,917 in 2007 and 1,260 in 2008. "The drop in dengue cases was thanks to the active participation of the locals," Umar Zein, head of Medan's Health Office, said.

        In the Sumatran province of Lampung, at least three residents were reported to have died of dengue fever.

        "Dengue killed its third victim this morning," Darsono, a resident of Sukabumi Indah village, Bandar Lampung city, said last weekend.

        In the meantime, the regional government of West Kalimantan has set aside Rp3 billion in funds to help overcome the spread of dengue fever this year after the number of cases increased to 1,500 in 2008 from 1,350 cases in 2007. In 2008, a total of 30 of the 1,500 patients in Balikpapan died of the disease.

        "We should increase alertness in the face of outbreaks of dengue in January and February," said Dyah Muryani, head of Balikpapan's Health Office. (T.A014/A/HAJM/18:25/A014) 14-01-2009 18:25:15