Jakarta itching for dengue bylaw

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Wed, 04/11/2007 3:14 PM  |  Jakarta

JAKARTA: Responding to a rise in the incidence of dengue fever in the city, the Jakarta administration submitted Tuesday the draft of a bylaw on dengue containment to the city council for approval.

""We are still discussing the content (of the draft) and will probably make it official after passing the avian influenza containment bylaw,"" City Council speaker Ade Supriatna said.

Ade said dengue had claimed too many lives and the city needed a legal basis to force the public to comply with basic prevention efforts.

He added that those who failed to keep the surroundings of their homes clean could face penalties, the form of which were still being discussed by councillors.

Currently, dengue prevention efforts such as the regular cleaning of water containers had been ineffective because many residents had not joined in with efforts.

Jakarta already carries out a regular Friday campaign requiring residents to allocate half an hour to keeping their homes clean of the larvae of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, the carrier of the dengue virus. -- JP

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.