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Poor prevention measures lead to dengue outbreak in Sikka
The Health Ministry has recorded a total of 17,820 cases —104 of which were fatal — of dengue fever since January, fewer than in the same period last year when there were 52,000 cases and 439 deaths.
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A health official fogs the air around a house on Jl. Gunung Balong 1 in South Jakarta with insecticide as part of the effort to prevent dengue fever on Jan. 13, 2019. (Antara/Reno Esnir)
W
hile cases and deaths are lower nationwide, six regencies have declared dengue fever outbreaks from January to March with Sikka in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) reported the highest number of cases at 1,216 as of Wednesday.
The Health Ministry’s director of vector and zoonotic infectious disease, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, said the high number of cases in Sikka was caused by the poor handling of regency's preventive measures for eradicating mosquito breeding grounds, allowing uncontrolled population growth of the Aedes aegypti mosquito.
“Many uncovered water reservoirs inside and outside the house. Puddles and plastic bottle waste are also common,” she said.
She urged both the Sikka administration and residents to improve their awareness of the matter as the region kept reporting high numbers of cases in the past 10 years.
The Health Ministry has recorded a total of 17,820 cases — 104 of which were fatal — of dengue fever since January, fewer than in the same period last year when there were about 52,000 cases and 439 deaths.
Lampung is the province with the most reported cases with 3,431, followed by NTT with 2,732, East Java with 1,761, West Java with 1,420 and Jambi with 703.
Siti explained that most fatalities were caused by the inadequate treatment of patients who were already suffering the later stages of the disease.
