Dengue Fever Continues To Prevail

JAKARTA, Feb 17 (Antara) - Struggling to win the battle against dengue fever, the government of Indonesia has warned the people in various provinces across the country to always be wary of the deadly disease during the rainy season. However, the acute infectious disease caused by a virus transmitted by Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes, continues to prevail during the rainy season since January to February 2017. Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral disease that has become so common among humans that it has in recent years turned into a major international public health concern. Although the people have started to clean up the breeding grounds of the mosquitoes that carry the dengue virus, the disease undeniably continues to hit other part of the country. Dengue cases in Indonesia, a tropical country with a fast growing population, increase from time to time as a major killer in the country. According to the Health Ministry's Directorate General for Disease Prevention and Control, almost all the provinces in the country are dengue endemic this year. In the province of East Java, the Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF) cases were reported to have hit some 19 districts/cities since January 2017. Of the 19 districts/cities, three regions with the highest number of dengue patients are the district of Bondowoso with 69 cases, followed by the district of Probolinggo with 66 cases, and the city of Probolinggo with 36 cases. As a result of the dengue cases, East Java provincial government official Benny Sampir Wanto remarked in Surabaya on Thursday that five people were reported to have died of the disease in Batu, Bondowoso, Jember, and Malang. Data from the local Health Office indicated that in 2016, as many as 24,098 people in East Java suffered from the dengue fever that claimed 339 lives. Hence, Wanto said the East Java provincial government would continue to acquaint the local people with the program of 3M Plus approach, considered effective to eradicate mosquito breeding grounds. According to him, 3M Plus is a basic action that consists of to drain, to cover, and to bury or reuse. The first act is to drain water reservoirs such as bathtubs, buckets of water, drinking water reservoirs, storage in refrigerators and so on. Secondly, covering items like drums and water storage cistern, and thridly, bury or utilize/recycle used goods that can be potentially used by the dengue mosquitoes in laying their eggs. While Plus includes all forms of prevention, such as to apply powder of larvicides in water tanks which are difficult to clean, to use mosquito repellents or utilizing mosquito nets while sleeping, keeping fish predators to consume mosquito larvae, to grow mosquito repellent plants, to stop hanging used clothes in the room, and to maintain the environment hygiene. Besides East Java, dengue cases were reported since January to February 2017 in the provinces West Sumatra, Bengkulu, Riau, Central Java, and East Nusa Tenggara, among others. In West Sumatra, local Health Office has recorded that there were 33 dengue cases in January this year in the provincial city of Padang. But the number of cases in Padang city declined from that in the same month last year, reaching 50 cases. West Sumtra Health Office Chief Merry Yuliesday remarked that of 3,985 dengue cases across the province in 2016, 18 patients died of the disease. And in the City of Sawahlunto in West Sumatra, 16 children were also reported to have suffered from dengue fever till the end of Jan 2017. Based on data from the local Health Office, dengue cases in Sawahlunto spread in three sub-districts, with eight cases in Talawi, five cases in Barangin and three cases in Silungkang. In Bengkulu, the local Health Office found that the number of dengue fever cases continued to rise and reached 16 in Jan 2017, but luckily there was no report of fatality. Bengkulu Health Office Chief Herwan Antoni remarked that all 16 patients with dengue fever have been cured after receiving medical treatment at numerous hospitals. Antoni noted that high rainfall in Bengkulu in Jan, which is predicted to last until March 2017, makes the area vulnerable to dengue fever attack. In the meantime, Pekanbaru City Health Office Chief Gustiyanti in Riau Province remarked that 39 cases of the disease were also recorded in the city in the first four weeks of Jan 2017. But later, Riau Provincial Health Office Chief Mimi Yuliani Nazir said that that 166 people in the province have been contracted with dengue fever, and three of them have died of the disease since the beginning of January this year. In Central Java, the local Health Office is focusing on reducing and preventing the number of cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever, which increased sharply during the rainy season in January and February. Wongsonegoro Hospital spokesman Dr. M Abdul Hakam remarked in Semarang, Central Java, recently, that the hospital had treated 128 patients with dengue fever since January. Even up to early Feb 2017, 16 dengue patients, comprising 10 adults and six children, were treated at the Wongsonegoro Hospital. Hakam said that the local people are trying to destroy mosquito breeding grounds by burying, draining and hoarding the scrap items that retain water, since fogging is now no longer able to eradicate mosquito larvae. In the East Nusa Tenggara provincial city of Kupang, the number of patients suffering from dengue fever continued to rise to 29 until February 2017 in line with the increasing rainfall intensity. "Until this day, as many as 29 people have suffered from the disease and were under medical treatment at numerous hospitals in the city," City's Health Office spokesperson, Sri Wahyuningsih, remarked in Kupang recently. She said the number of patients with dengue fever had increased to 8 in early January, 17 at the end of the month, and 29 till this day. According to Wahyuningsih, the increase in the number of dengue patients in the city of Kupang is due to the extreme weather conditions that this area has experienced in the last two weeks, with moderate-to high-intensity rainfall. In order to break the chain of dengue transmission, she said the local community had been urged to revive the tradition of mutual assistance by conducting an environmental cleanliness movement, such as burying, draining and hoarding, in addition to eradicating the Aedes aegypti mosquito breeding grounds.