Coordinator of Papua Health Crisis Center (HCC) Paminto Widodo, said the team, which comprised of four members including himself, would depart to the two subdistricts of Degesiga and Bamba, where death tolls were reportedly highest over recent months.

“We will re-examine and retest to make sure that these [40] people really died from malaria,” said Paminto.

Other team members were Ary Pongtiku, Made Gafar and Neny Mulyani.

Malaria, a serious infectious disease spread by certain mosquitoes, is most common in tropical climates and is characterized by recurrent symptoms, such as chills, fever and an enlarged spleen.

Paminto said that a report filed by the Intan Jaya Health Agency confirmed the victims had tested positive to Malaria.

However, he said, the regency’s geographical situation, which is relatively high and cold with temperatures between 10 and 15 degrees, was not a suitable place for malaria to grow.

“More thorough research is needed,” Paminto said.

One of the examined factors, he said, included whether the victims had traveled outside their villages.

“It’s quite possible they contracted malaria while traveling in other regions such as Nabire, a malaria-endemic area,” he said.

He said that if the victims were later proven to have never left their subdistricts, then the outbreak would be a new phenomenon the emergence of mountain range malaria.

He said the team would also look into the possibility that the number of dead victims listed in the report was an accumulation of deaths from previous years — and had not occurred over a short period of time.

Paminto said that three deaths in three months in a subdistrict would still be considered normal.

“That is the reason why the team will go directly to subdistricts with the highest number of deaths reported in the last month [to find out the real figure],” he said.

As a precaution, he said that the team had also coordinated with the Intan Jaya Health Agency to
conduct fogging in the region.

The secretary of  the Papua legislative council’s Commission A overseeing health, Julius Miagoni, told reporters that the deaths of the 40 people occurred over three months — from April to June.

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