TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Malaria, dengue outbreaks hit East and West Nusa Tenggara
At least three people have died from malaria and dengue fever that hit East and West Nusa Tenggara over the past two months
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
At least three people have died from malaria and dengue fever that hit East and West Nusa Tenggara over the past two months.
Three brothers from the Bunanek family in Anin village, South Timor Tengah, East Nusa Tengara, died of malaria within days of each other last week. Marciana, 17, Sonisius, 18 and Alfonsius, 24, suffered high fever, spasms and stomach problems prior to succumbing to the disease.
"I'm deeply saddened by this tragedy, which has killed my beloved children who used to help me work on our farmland," said the boy's father, Bernardus Bunanek. "It is very difficult to accept this reality. I felt powerless as I had no money to take them to the hospital."
The Bunaneks are one of 400 families in the least-developed subdistrict of South Amanatun. The people in the area live in squalid huts, possessing only a small plot on which to sustain their livelihoods. The community has very limited access to health-care due to the remote location of their village, inadequate infrastructure and poor economic conditions.
Thousands of people in the province have been infected during this years rainy season due to widespread outbreaks of the mosquito borne diseases. The total number of fatalities in the region is unknown at present.
Chief of the local health office, Markus Ng Righuata said the death of the Bunanek brothers was regrettable. Besides delivering humanitarian aid to the victims' families, the local administration has sent medical teams to provide free first-aid kits to infected people living in remote areas of the regency.
"The medical teams have helped more than 100 residents showing malaria and dengue fever symptoms to cope with their disease and make an eventual recovery" he said.
He said malaria and dengue fever were two endemic diseases in the regency that emerged almost annually during the rainy season. The poor live mostly in swampy areas and are therefore prone to infection by the two diseases.
In Bima, West Nusa Tenggara, malaria has claimed five lives over the past two months.
Chief of the local health office, Siti Hadjar Yoenoes said her office has identified at least 1,200 people infected by the disease in the municipality. She said the administration has considered declaring a state of emergency due to the high number of victims and the wide area affected by the disease outbreak.
"The epidemic has spread to five subdistricts --Bolo, Woha, North Monta, Belo and Pali Belo. Our medical teams have been in the field to give free medical aid to victims," she said.
A declaration of a state of emergency in the municipality is needed to prompt the provincial government to provide technical and financial aid in fighting the diseases, she said.
Benny Nugroho, of the provincial health office in Mataram, said both malaria and dengue fever have infected thousands of people in the province
He said malaria has infected 60 people in Mataram municipality and claimed one life while dengue high fever has infected hundreds of others in Mataram and West Lombok regency.
