As Jakarta prepares to revisit the daily downpours of the rainy season and the occasional flooding in various areas of the city, dengue fever has once again become a possible lurking threat.
Jakarta Health Agency head Dien Emmawati says she has ordered all of her subordinates to take additional precautions in halting the spread of the deadly fever in the capital.
“We must inspect all possible breeding grounds for the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes to exterminate larvae,” she told The Jakarta Post.
Dien urged residents of flood-prone areas to conduct the inspections while water levels are still low.
“This way, once the areas are inundated, hopefully the inspections will have cleared them from mosquitoes,” she said.
The Aedes aegypti, the vector for transmitting dengue fever, are known to prefer areas of stagnant water for their breeding grounds, including vases, wet shower floors, toilet tanks, uncovered barrels, rain gutters, earthenware pots and discarded tires.
Fumigation and use of larvicide powder in possible breeding grounds are the two most popular methods of killing Aedes aegypti larvae.
The task of reminding people about the dangers of dengue fever, along with instruction on how to prevent the disease, fall on the shoulders of the so-called “larvae busters”, popularly known as juru pemantau jentik (jumantik — voluntary larvae controllers).
These larvae busters are not part of the administrative bureaucracy, but on the other hand, are common residents appointed by neighborhood unit chiefs to help secure a healthier neighborhood.
There are currently around 31,500 larvae busters in Jakarta, spread over the city’s five municipalities and the Thousand Islands regency. A neighborhood unit typically has one larvae buster, although Dien said that there are several units across Jakarta with two or three busters.
Emiliana Jaru, a middle-aged mother of two, is a larvae buster in a dense residential area in the RW 14 community unit, Grogol Utara subdistrict, South Jakarta.
She has been intent on inspecting 142 houses in her neighborhood unit every week since 2004, exceeding the Health Agency’s ratio.
“If a neighborhood unit only has around 20 houses, one larvae buster is sufficient. With a higher number of houses, the neighborhood unit must deploy more busters,” Dien said.
However, for Emiliana the large number of houses in her area has never been a cause for reservation. “I do the job for the people in my neighborhood. I never see it as a burden. I just take it easy,” she said.
She usually inspects the houses in her neighborhood while taking her normal afternoon stroll. The “weapons” she brings during the inspections include a flashlight and a plastic bag carrying abate powder sachets. Both the sachets and the flashlight are provided by the subdistrict office.
“I usually inspect rain gutters, flower pots, water dispensers and puddles behind refrigerators [in my neighbors’ homes],” she said.
To halt the spread of disease, she also provides suggestions for her neighbors, including reminding them to implement the steps locally known as 3M – mengubur, menguras, menutup, or bury, drain, and shut all stagnant water areas.
“My neighbors rely too much on fogging [fumigation]. I often tell them that no matter how often the neighborhood is fumigated, it will not be of much help if they do not implement the 3M steps,” she said.
Saksono Soehodo, head of RW 10 community unit in Cipinang Elok Dua neighborhood in Cipinang, East Jakarta, said that his neighborhood did not appoint larvae busters because their duties had already been taken over by local residents and neighborhood janitors.
“The gutters, home gardens, public parks, along with all possible breeding grounds for mosquitoes in the neighborhood are routinely cleaned every week,” he said.
Since the larvae busters program was initiated by the city early last decade, the number of dengue
fever cases has gradually decreased every year. The city recorded 31,836 cases in 2007, 27,400 in 2008, and 18,037 in 2009.
“We only recorded 5,000 cases from January to October this year, a sharp decrease from around 12,000 during the same period last year,” Dien said. (mim)
