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