by Playfuls Staff |
10th April 2007
A seasonal dengue fever outbreak in the Indonesian capital has killed at least 41 and sickened more than 11,000 others this year, sparked the city authorities to declare the outbreak [more] an "extraordinary occurrence," local media reports said Tuesday.
Governor Sutiyoso said that the mosquito-borne disease cases in the capital had risen drastically since January, with a total of 11,094 people were infected and claimed the lives of 41 residents, The Jakarta Post reported.
By comparison, the whole year of 2006 saw 24,942 reported cases of dengue fever recorded with 51 deaths in Jakarta.
"I declare the Jakarta's dengue fever outbreak extraordinary occurrence status late last week because the number of infected people has sharply increased," Media Indonesia daily quoted Sutiyoso as saying.
He said he had sent letters to the Health Minister over the weekend asking for additional drugs and insecticides for a mass fumigation across the capital of more than 12 million residents.
"There is no other way to exterminate the mosquitoes except fumigation," Sutiyoso said, calling all city residents to destroy mosquito nets in their houses once a week.
"I also suggested a regulation to the city council to give fines or whatever the form of the punishment if we find any mosquito larvae in houses," the governor said. In addition, he also asking for help from the Indonesian military to supply additional officers to enforce the plan.
As of April 5, a total of 89,866 cases of dengue fever were recorded across the world's fourth most populous nation and claimed the lives of 595 people this year, said an official at the country's Health Ministry.
Health officials had previously warned this year's dengue fever outbreak would be harder to manage than previous year, and several measures had been taken to reduce the rate of fatalities from the seasonal disease that spreads ahead of and after the rainy season, carried by the aedes aegypti mosquito.
Dengue infects up to 50 million people worldwide a year, and South-East Asia and the Western Pacific are the worst-hit regions. Dengue hemorrhagic fever is a lethal complication of the disease, and is a leading cause of hospitalization and death among children in several Asian countries, according to the World Health Organisation.
© 2007 DPA
