Jakarta – This year's dengue fever outbreak will be harder to manage than previous outbreaks due to significant increases in the total number of sufferers, the Health Minister said Friday.

"This year's outbreak will be harder to control than last year's because the number of patients has increased sharply since mid-January," Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said during the initiation of a mass fumigation campaign in West Cilandak, Jakarta.

Siti said the number of patients would be highest during the peak of rainy season in February and March.

However, on Thursday, the Health Ministry refused to declare the dengue fever outbreak an "extraordinary occurrence". The Ministry said the total number of sufferers had yet to double figures from the same period last year, or the previous month.

The director general of communicable diseases at the Health Ministry, I Nyoman Kandun, said Thursday that as of January, the total number of sufferers in Indonesia stood at 8,019, with a total death toll of 144. This was much lower than January 2005's figure of 18,929, when the death toll stood at 192.

Yet, Data indicates that this January's fatality rate was 1.8 percent higher than that of January last year, which stood at 1 percent.

Siti also said that, despite its quick response to the latest bird flu outbreak, Jakarta lagged in preventing dengue fever. "Jakarta continues to be one of the provinces with the highest number of dengue fever patients. This is due to its high population density level," she said.

She added that people should work together in combating dengue fever, which is commonly spread by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito.

The Jakarta Health Agency's data showed that as of Thursday, this year's dengue fever outbreak had proved fatal for eight out of 2,404 patients in the capital.

Governor Sutiyoso, who was also present at the mass fumigation, said Jakarta currently faced three serious problems: dengue fever, bird flu and flooding.

"Don't blame each other or talk too much, let's just face the problems hand in hand," he said, adding that every household should take care of their immediate environment. This should include monitoring for mosquito larva.

Dengue fever expert Sri Rezeki S. Hadinegoro said Thursday that people should carefully monitor fevers and immediately have blood tests if symptoms lasted more that three days. "If the fever stays high by the third day, it could be fatal," she warned.

Patients should consult their doctors on the appropriate blood test, and not only focus on blood platelets, as a decreasing number of platelets was not the only indicator of a dengue infection, she said.

"Their white and red blood cell counts should also be checked," she said. Sri added that the most important treatment for dengue patients to receive was rehydration, which maintains liquid and oxygen levels in the blood.