Dengue fever outbreak kills 28

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Thu, 01/25/2007 3:42 PM

Yuli Tri Suwarni and Slamet Susanto, The Jakarta Post, Bandung, Semarang

West Java, Yogyakarta and East Nusa Tenggara have been hit by a widespread dengue fever outbreak, killing 28 people so far this year and infecting hundreds of others.

West Java recorded 23 deaths between Jan. 1 and Jan. 24 this year; four others occurred in Yogyakarta, with one in East Nusa Tenggara.

Udeng Daman, head of the West Java Health Office's environmental sanitation section, said at least 848 people had been infected in the province since the start of the year.

Udeng said Cimahi regency had the highest number of cases with 149 infections and two deaths. Bogor mayoralty had the highest death total, with 130 infections and five deaths.

Dengue fever has been overshadowed by the threat of bird flu, even though dengue has proved far more deadly. Last year 283 people died of the fever in West Java alone.

Bird flu has claimed a total of 62 lives throughout Indonesia since its arrival here in 2005.

The Hasan Sadikin hospital in Bandung and Cibabat hospital in the adjacent city of Cimahi have been taxed by the rising number of dengue patients.

The Cibabat Hospital has provided two additional rooms for patients, who have been admitted at an average of 20 per day.

Hospital employee Ida Hadi said 103 patients, of whom 30 were children, had been treated for the disease there as of Wednesday.

""We're short 10 medical employees to tend to all the patients,"" Ida said.

In Yogyakarta, two of the patients who died were residents of Sleman regency and the other two were from Bantul. They were among 55 dengue fever patients recorded in Sleman, Bantul and Yogyakarta city.

""The two victims in Bantul who died were nine and 10-year-old children,"" Maya Sintodewi, head of the Bantul Health Office's community sanitation section, said.

Maya predicted the number of dengue fever patients would continue to rise because the rainy season created pools of standing water, the breeding place for the mosquitoes that spread the disease.

""However, we still cannot predict when the peak of the outbreak will be due to the changeable climate conditions,"" Maya said.

The situation is more critical this year because of damage from last spring's earthquake, Maya added. Many residents do not have houses to protect them from mosquito bites.

In Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, the WZ Yohannes hospital has moved to ""alert"" status to anticipate the possibility of a surge in dengue fever patients.

The move follows reports of the death of a child less than five years old, and dozens of other infections.

""The bad thing is that the dengue fever patients come from poor families. Most of them have complications from other communicable diseases,"" Rita Enny, deputy director of the hospital, said in Kupang on Wednesday.

Dengue started spreading in Kupang early this month in conjunction with the start of the rainy season, she added.

Yemris Fointuna contributed to this article from Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara.

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