Outbreak: Children receive medical treatment for dengue in a hospital
span class="caption">Outbreak: Children receive medical treatment for dengue in a hospital. Several areas across Indonesia, including Papua, have reported a growing number of dengue cases in the last several weeks. The Mappi administration, Papua, has declared an extraordinary situation (KLB) status for dengue in the regency. (Tempo)
The Mappi administration in Papua has declared an extraordinary situation (KLB) status over a dengue outbreak. From November 2015 to February this year, the administration recorded 12 people who tested positive for dengue and this is the highest number of cases ever experienced in the regency.
'Mappi is one of the regencies and municipalities in Papua that have recorded dengue cases this year. There are only 12 dengue-positive cases, but this is the first time for the regency to record dengue,' the Papua provincial administration's health agency head Aloisius Giay said in Jayapura on Wednesday.
'The number of dengue-infected patients had been rapidly growing so that the Mappi administration declared a KLB status over dengue,' he went on.
Apart from the 12 patients who tested positive for dengue, 24 Mappi residents were found to have suffered dengue-like fever.
Aloisious said the dengue cases in Mappi were found in two districts, namely Baa and Mambioman Babai.
He further explained that 47 dengue cases were found in other regions across Papua, but those regions did not declare a KLB status because of them.
'Of the total 47 cases, 20 dengue patients were found in Jayapura City, one of whom had died. The 27 remaining cases were found in six other areas, namely Biak Numfor, Jayapura regency, Keerom, Merauke, Sarmi and Timika,' said Aloisious.
Citing data from the Papua administration's health agency, he said, 29 regencies and municipalities across the province had potential breeding places for the Aedes aegypti, the mosquito responsible for transmitting dengue. Six regencies and municipalities, namely Biak, Boven Digul, Jayapura City, Jayapura regency, Keerom and Merauke, had been declared dengue endemic areas. Meanwhile, Timika was declared to be a regency with sporadic dengue cases.
Aloisious said the Papua administration's health agency had dispatched medicines and mosquito fogging equipment to Mappi and prepared health workers to be ready to be deployed to the regency once they were requested by the local administration. (ebf)
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