The Jakarta Health Agency is expecting fewer cases of the mosquito-borne dengue fever this year.

Heavy rain has continued to batter Jakarta in the past couple of weeks as the rainy season continues. This is also the time when dengue-bearing mosquitos are most active.

According to Jakarta Health Agency head Widyastuti, 434 dengue fever cases have been reported in the capital as of Feb. 17. Of the figure, 120 were found in East Jakarta, 108 cases in South Jakarta, 106 in West Jakarta, 69 cases in North Jakarta, 27 cases in Central Jakarta and four cases in the Thousand Islands.

"Dengue fever is endemic to Jakarta, which means it will always see new cases every year," Widyastuti told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of a national meeting between the Health Ministry and local agencies on Wednesday. "We hope to keep the cases under control this year."

The city has been seeing a downward trend in reported dengue fever cases, with a 72.2 percent year-on-year decline from 989 to 275 recorded in January, and a 12.35 percent decline to 2,947 in 2018 from 3,362 in 2017.

The Jakarta administration, in collaboration with the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) and the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), provides an early warning system for dengue fever on dbd.bmkg.go.id. The online platform provides estimates for the number of dengue fever cases in each municipality in Jakarta, with rainfall and humidity used as the main predictors.

According to the website, the rate of dengue fever cases was estimated to reach its highest point last Monday in East Jakarta with 5.4 cases per 100,000 people, followed by South Jakarta at 4.8 per 100,000 people, West Jakarta at 4.1 cases, Central Jakarta at 3.6 and North Jakarta at 3.4 cases per 100,000 people. The administration urges people to stay alert for rates between three and 10 cases per 100,000 people.

The website also provides information on the city's relative humidity, as higher levels are generally the best conditions for the aedes aegypti mosquito to spread dengue fever.

The relative humidity of South Jakarta is expected to reach 85 percent, East and West Jakarta 84 percent, Central Jakarta 82 percent and North Jakarta 81 percent.

"We have not been able to kill the virus altogether," Widyastuti added. "We control the mosquitoes [from proliferating] by destroying their breeding ground in a campaign called PSN."

To curb the spread of dengue fever, the Jakarta Health Agency has also been encouraging each household to appoint a member who can monitor larva inside the house, called jumantik. The agency is also working with one jumantik worker for every community unit.

Dengue fever tends to pick up as the rainy season begins, usually between November and March.

Every four or five years, the spread of the disease reaches its peak, according to University of Indonesia epidemiologist Tri Yunis Miko Wahyono.

Jakarta recorded its latest peak in 2016, when 20,432 people had dengue fever, according to the Jakarta Health Agency.

"It is because of the changing [weather], following heavier rain every five years," Miko told the Post over the phone on Wednesday. (dfr)

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