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Cause of deaths of Papuan children revealed
Ruben Wetipo (right) poses with his children in front of their honai, a traditional Papuan house, in Wouma village in Wamena of Jayawijaya regency in Papua on April 29, 2012
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span class="inline inline-center">Ruben Wetipo (right) poses with his children in front of their honai, a traditional Papuan house, in Wouma village in Wamena of Jayawijaya regency in Papua on April 29, 2012. Men sleep in one honai called the honai pilamo. (Kompas/Agus Susanto)
Respiratory bacteria and a mosquito-borne virus caused the deaths of dozens of children in Mbuwa district of Nduga regency in Papua, a researcher said, urging people to keep clean to prevent diseases from spreading.
The director of the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology, Amin Soebandrio, said recently that laboratory tests on samples taken from the victims showed that pneumococcus and Japanese encephalitis were spreading in the area. These are two common things in Indonesia and children are mostly at high risk of infection.
'Pneumococcus is short for streptococcus pneumonia and it is classified as a bacteria," he said as quoted by Kompas.
Amin said that the pneumococcus bacteria resided in people's respiratory tracts, including in people who were healthy, but normally it did not trigger illness.
"People who are prone of infections are children and the elderly because they have weaker stamina," he said.
The Papua Health Office announced in November that 41 children had died in Nduga regency from an unidentified disease.
The health office and Health Ministry sent teams of doctors, nurses and researchers to investigate the cause of the deaths of the children, who were mostly under the age of 2.
Amin added that for children, the effects caused by streptococcus pneumonia could be pneumonia, hearing impairment and sinus infection.
Infected children could have symptoms such as sore throats, vomiting, fever and seizures. Infected lungs could lead to death.
Amin said that that there was vaccine for the bacteria, but it is not part of the government's immunization program since the vaccine is expensive and the government is still studying its effectiveness.
Meanwhile, the Japanese encephalitis virus could be transferred from humans to animals or vice versa, Amin said.
The virus was usually found in wild pigs and poultry and it infected people through mosquito bites. Fever is its usual symptom.
He said that if the virus attacked nerve tissue, the probability of death could reach 60 percent. Still, most patients could be cured.
Children to teenagers are prone to this virus if they have a weakened immune system.
Amin urged everyone to keep a clean neighborhood and to clean pigsties regularly as that would be the best preventions for the disease.
"To prevent mosquitos from breeding," he said, adding that the treatment for the disease was similar to treating fever. (rin)(+)
