Adisti Sukma Sawitri, Jakarta – Rusmiyati, a matron at Tarakan Hospital in Central Jakarta, has routinely requested leave in the first quarter of the year, after most of her friends go on holiday.

It is a wish that has never been granted because the children's ward she supervises is always full at that time with dengue fever patients from low-income families, who are treated for free at city-run hospitals like Tarakan.

"Dengue patients come and go so fast from January to March every year. I can hardly remember the names of the patients who died in my ward last week," she told The Jakarta Post on Thursday in her office as she leafed through the patient record book.

This month, the number of dengue cases escalated by the dozen – even by the hundred – each day, reaching 1,240 with six fatalities as of Tuesday, three of whom died in Tarakan.

The rapid increase in cases does not say much for the administration's fumigation and cleanup efforts. There is still a high prevalence of dengue infection in many districts of the city, particularly those in South and East Jakarta.

Rosanti, a resident of Rawa Lele subdistrict in West Jakarta, who was admitted to the hospital with dengue three days ago, was surprised to find four of her neighbors in the same ward. "We live in neighboring units," she said.

Rosanti said they had chosen the hospital, despite it being a long way from home, because it offered free treatment and quality medicines.

The administration offers free dengue treatment at 17 hospitals in the city. However, many of them – including Tarakan, Koja in North Jakarta and Fatmawati in South Jakarta, receive more than their fair share of patients due to their location.

Jakarta Health Agency deputy head Salimar Salim said the constant stream of dengue cases was the result of longer transition periods between the rainy and dry seasons in the past four years.

She said that as a result, mosquito breeding was almost continuous. People's poor living conditions, she added, also contributed to the mounting number of cases.

"People may clean up their houses and their gutters but there's a mound of garbage only meters away from their house. This too can potentially be a nesting place for mosquitoes after it rains." The Aedes aegypti mosquito can fly 100 meters away from where it breeds and spread the fever, she added.

Efforts to curb dengue, Salimar said, required commitment from all levels of the community as well as the administration.

The head of City Council Commission E for social welfare, Dani Anwar, said the rapid growth in the number of dengue cases and the resurgence of bird flu in the city exposed the low hygiene standards that many residents had as disease outbreaks tended to be associated with slum areas.

He said the time was ripe for the administration to make a bylaw on environmental standards in the city. "We have to be more disciplined about hygiene. It is time to punish those who have filthy houses or pollute the environment."

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Dengue fever in Jakarta

Source: Jakarta Health Agency