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
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