T

he government is warning people to improve sanitation as the rainy season’s peak approaches to prevent the spread of mosquito-borne diseases such as Chikungunya fever.

Rita Kusriastuti, the Health Ministry’s animal-borne infectious disease control chief, said that people must remain vigilant after the outbreak of Chikungunya fever that was recently brought under control in Depok, West Java.

“The [Depok] case gives us a warning that devastating illnesses may appear if we pay poor attention to environmental cleanliness,” she told The Jakarta Post.

Environmental conditions as well as the cleanliness of homes affected the health of their occupants, she added.

An outbreak of Chikungunya fever infected 235 people in Depok between Nov. 5, 2011, and Jan. 5, comprising 191 cases in Grogol, 40 cases in Tanah Baru and four cases in Mampang neighborhoods.

Rita said that during a Health Ministry inspection joined by Depok’s Health Agency and the Limo community health center (puskesmas), a ministry disease control and environmental health (P2PL) team determined that three subdistricts that were heavily affected by the outbreaks had poor environmental conditions that created breeding sites for mosquitoes.

“Unused tires and cans, plastic-based waste and piles of garbage were scattered around everywhere,” Rita said.

Inside the houses, the team found poor conditions as well, Rita said, such as chronically damp and poorly ventilated rooms that frequently lacked partitions and that had clothing hanging on the walls.

“We are apprehensive about such poor environmental housing conditions in those subdistricts,” said Rita.

Chikungunya fever has affected almost every part of the country.

In the beginning of 2001, for example, a Chikungunya fever outbreak led for an “extraordinary situation”, or public health alert (KLB), to be declared by the Health Ministry in Muara Enim, South Sumatra, Aceh and Bogor, West Java.

A year later, an outbreak occurred in Bekasi, West Java, and in Purworejo and Klaten, Central Java.

According to the Health Ministry, the number of recorded Chikungunya fever infections declined to 2,242 in 2011, down 96 percent from 53,899 in 2010.

The recent outbreak in Depok, however, shows that “3M-community” preventive measures have not been entirely successful at the grass roots level.

The campaign consists of three steps to prevent mosquito breeding: burying unused items, cleaning open tanks at least once a week and properly closing water containers.

Rita said that voluntary mosquito larvae controllers — popularly known as juru pemantau jentik, or jumantik, for short — should be more vigilant as the rainy season peaks this month.

Chikungunya fever is a mosquito-borne viral disease. Those affected frequently evince arthritis-like joint pain and high fevers.

Symptoms materialize between 5 to 10 days after a person is bitten by an infected mosquito.

Those afflicted by Chikungunya fever suffer pain in their waists and hips and are often unable to walk.