Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang
Three districts in Tangerang regency, located around three kilometers west of the country's main international airport, are fighting a diarrhea outbreak.
As many as 95 people -- mostly children -- are being treated at a clinic for the potentially deadly but preventable disease, with one child dying last week.
The epidemic started early this month and has hit the Sepatan, Sepatan Timur and Pakuhaji districts.
Patients are being treated at the Sepatan public health clinic, which, as a limited facility, can only accommodate 50 people.
Other patients are forced to wait on tables and cots in the clinic's corridors.
A 2-year-old girl, Noviana, died Thursday of dehydration after being treated for several days.
Tangerang Regent Ismet Iskandar declared the diarrhea outbreak an ""extraordinary occurrence"" in the three districts.
""It has been two years since the last outbreak, but it is still difficult to make residents aware of good health practices and sanitation,"" he said during a visit to the clinic over the weekend.
In June 2005, an outbreak affected more than 1,000 people, killing 19.
The administration has since carried out a series of public information campaigns on health and sanitation.
Ismet said residents often defecated in the river that runs through the area, the water of which is also used for bathing and washing. Others use the water for cooking.
""We have spent billions of rupiah from the 2005 and 2006 budgets to build a common water facility. But residents still revert to using rivers,"" he said.
Head of the communicable diseases prevention unit at the regency's health agency, Yuliah Iskandar, said most of the patients became ill after consuming snacks and iced syrup beverages from vendors on the street.
""The water used to prepare the ice was probably contaminated with Escherichia coli and Vibrio cholerae bacteria,"" she said, adding that samples of food sold on the street had been collected for testing at the Environmental Sanitation technical center in Serang.
She said several volunteers from the Saka Bhakti Husada scouts would be deployed to the clinic, which will increase the staff on duty to 75.
The clinic has borrowed 50 cots from the military.
""We are encouraging residents to bring the ill to the clinic as soon as possible, before it's too late,"" she said.
