A

s the number of cases of dengue fever is estimated to peak within the next two months, May and June, Bali residents are being urged to be more alert to monitor locations where mosquito larvae reproduce.

'€œEvery time a report of dengue fever is heard of, we must look for mosquito larvae within a radius of 20 meters from the location of the disease occurrence,'€ said a monitoring officer for mosquito larvae in Denpasar, I Kadek Apri, who is now being treated in hospital as he has contracted dengue fever.

Apri contracted the fever after several days of intensive monitoring around the Kesiman area of East Denpasar, where many cases of dengue fever have recently occurred.

Head of the Bali Health Agency, I Ketut Suarjaya, stated that dengue fever in Bali had already reached 2,079 cases as of the end of April. The case fatality rate (CFR) is 0.05 percent, with one death.

The largest number of dengue fever outbreaks has been reported in the Denpasar mayoralty, with 685 cases, followed by Badung regency with 412 cases and Tabanan regency with 179 cases. Bangli regency has the least amount of cases with 10.

'€œDengue fever cases will reach a peak in the middle of this year, around May, with most cases occurring in areas with high population density,'€ Suarjaya said.

The disease carrier is the aedes aegypti mosquito, the larvae of which have been found in many abandoned houses.

Suarjaya acknowledged that fumigating had not completely eliminated the mosquitoes and their larvae.

The Badung Health Agency'€™s division head for the prevention of infectious disease, Elly Suandewi, urged residents to actively continue participating in preventing the spread of dengue fever by using Abate powder larvicide in their home water containers.

Prevention measures can also be conducted by regularly covering, cleaning and draining water containers at every household to prevent the mosquitoes from reproducing.

Larvae monitoring officers will also be deployed in areas with reported high occurrences of dengue fever.

Elly also urged residents to be more alert in monitoring mosquito larvae. Last year, Badung recorded almost 700 residents as having contracted dengue fever, while in 2010, there were around 3,000 cases with five deaths.

The peak of the five-year epidemic cycle of dengue fever is expected to occur in 2015.

In Bali, annual occurrences of dengue fever always fluctuate, with 184 cases per 100,000 of the population in 2007. The highest figures in 10 years were recorded in 2010, when 365 cases occurred per 100,000 of the population. Lately, the figure has dropped to 68 cases per 100,000.

In 2012, the CFR was below 1 percent with three fatalities from almost 3,000 sufferers in 2012.