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Middle class residents targeted in dengue fever campaign
Fear dengue: A bus that aims to raise awareness about the dangers of dengue fever is parked outside Jakarta City Hall on Monday
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Fear dengue: A bus that aims to raise awareness about the dangers of dengue fever is parked outside Jakarta City Hall on Monday. The bus is on a four-month mission to raise awareness about dengue fever. This socialization program was organized as part of the commemoration of ASEANâs Dengue Fever Day, which falls on June 15.(JP/AWO) (JP/AWO)
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span class="inline inline-center">Fear dengue: A bus that aims to raise awareness about the dangers of dengue fever is parked outside Jakarta City Hall on Monday. The bus is on a four-month mission to raise awareness about dengue fever. This socialization program was organized as part of the commemoration of ASEAN's Dengue Fever Day, which falls on June 15.(JP/AWO)
The Health Ministry and the Jakarta administration launched on Monday a campaign against dengue fever to mark SEAN dengue day, which falls on June 15, targeting the city's upper and middle classes.
The Ministry's Director General for Disease Control and Environmental Health, H.M. Subuh, said that the campaign would last for four months in 40 different areas in the capital city. He said that the campaign would mainly target upper and middle class neighborhoods and office buildings.
'The campaign starts today [Monday]. We will target the upper and middle class because they tend not to welcome to our campaigns,' Subuh said at City Hall on Monday.
Dengue fever is a disease carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito that usually bites in daylight. It takes between four and 10 days for symptoms to manifest after a person has been bitten by a disease-carrying mosquito. The most common signs are high fever, severe headache, nausea, swollen glands and joint pain.
The Jakarta administration recorded 3,423 cases of dengue fever from January to June, the highest numbers of which occurred in West Jakarta with 880 cases and South Jakarta with 834 cases.
Subuh said that out of every 100 dengue case in Indonesia, roughly 35 occur among the upper and middle classes.
Separately, Jakarta Health Agency's head of Health Control unit Widyastuti acknowledged that Jakarta's upper and middle-class neighborhoods were often ambivalent about the city's Pemberantasan Sarang Nyamuk (PSN) anti-mosquito campaign.
Previously, it was revealed that residents in Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama's exclusive neighborhood of Pantai Mutiara in North Jakarta did not give the city administration permission let mosquito larvae controllers, known locally as jumantik volunteers, to enter the neighborhood.
Subsequently Ahok himself caught dengue fever, soon after a mosquito larvae was found in a sink in his home.
'Many upper- and middle-income neighborhoods are reluctant and hostile toward our PSN campaign. They opt to carry out fogging, but fogging does not completely eliminate mosquitoes. Therefore, we will target office buildings and upper and middle class neighborhoods such as West Jakarta's Kembangan and North Jakarta's Kelapa Gading,' Ahok said.
Ahok urged Jakartans to participate in the campaign, as anyone could catch the illness. 'No one is immune from dengue fever. Even I caught the fever. I encourage everyone to stay aware and participate in the campaign,' he said.
Subuh said that in the campaign, officials from the Health Ministry and the Jakarta Health Agency would board a bus and travel to neighborhoods and office buildings to teach residents and office workers how to prevent the mosquitoes from breeding.
'Our campaign is very basic knowledge such as the 3M, among other things. Although most residents already understand and have even memorized 3M, many still ignore the practice and choose to just use mosquito spray instead,' Subuh said.
3M stands for mengubur (burying), menguras (draining) and menutup (covering). The three strategies represent recommendations on how to reduce the amount of standing water where mosquitoes breed. The movement is part of the nationwide PSN campaign.
Subuh said that as a result of the campaign, the ministry hoped every house would have at least one jumantik.
