JAKARTA (THE JAKARTA POST/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) – More than 100 people have died of dengue fever in Indonesia this month, the country’s Health Ministry said.

The largest number of fatalities was recorded in East Java province, where it claimed 41 lives, while 13 people died of the disease in North Sulawesi and 12 in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT).

Dengue had also killed people in 16 other provinces by Saturday (Jan 26). Central Java recorded nine fatalities, one in West Java and seven in South Sulawesi, the ministry’s director for vector-borne and zoonotic diseases Siti Nadia Tarmizi said.

The ministry has recorded at least 9,634 dengue cases in 372 cities and regencies across the archipelago during this year’s rainy season when dengue-bearing mosquitoes are most active. By Saturday, four regions, Kupang city and West Manggarai regency in NTT, Kapuas regency in Central Kalimantan and North Sulawesi province had declared a dengue emergency according to Dr Siti.

“Several provinces have also seen a significant increase in dengue cases: East Java, Central Java, West Java, Jakarta, Lampung, South Sulawesi and East Kalimantan, as well as NTT and North Sulawesi,” Dr Siti told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

“Rainy seasons like this make it easier for mosquitoes to breed. One female mosquito can lay hundreds of eggs and these eggs can turn into adult mosquitoes in just two days. So please be more vigilant during the rainy season,” she said. “There is a possibility the cases will peak in February and March, depending on how regions prevent the spread of the disease.”

In East Java, dengue cases so far in January have increased to 1,634 compared with 1,114 in January 2018. “The increase is around 47 per cent,” East Java Health Agency head Hari Santoso said. “We try to get the number down by eliminating the mosquito nests and raising public participation in the efforts to prevent dengue fever infection during the rainy season.”

West Java, meanwhile, recorded at least 1,085 cases as of Jan 22. State-run Hasan Sadikin hospital in the West Java provincial capital of Bandung has also recorded more dengue cases this month.

“Usually in a month we treat eight to 10 dengue patients, but this month, at least as of Jan 24, we have already treated 55 patients. It’s a huge surge,” hospital director Nina Susana said, adding that the hospital might consider allocating hallways or other hospital wards for dengue patients should the number increase further.

Kupang declared an emergency on Jan 23 across the capital of NTT following what its health agency head I Wayan Ari Wijana described as “a large increase in dengue fever cases in three consecutive weeks since early January”. The number has grown from 21 cases in the first week of January to 127 cases in the third week.

The efforts to tackle the dengue emergency has included fogging, the use of larvicide and eliminating standing water to prevent mosquito breeding.

In mid-January, West Manggarai regency declared a dengue emergency, saying it would prepare almost 2 billion rupiah (S$192,508) to handle the outbreak, including by fogging and larvicide use in four areas where most cases were found. At least 263 cases have been reported across the regency so far this year.

Dengue fever cases were also recorded in neighbouring Manggarai and East Manggarai regencies.

Indonesia saw 68,407 dengue cases in 2017, with 493 fatalities, down from 204,171 cases with 1,598 fatalities in 2016.

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