Malaria threatens Bengkulu residents
Antara News, Monday, October 18, 2010 22:25 WIB
Bengkulu (ANTARA News) - A total of 7,654 residents of Bengkulu province`s capital of Bengkulu had suffered from Malaria, a disease caused by anopheles mosquitoes, this year, a health worker said.
Head of Bengkulu city`s health office, drg.Mixon Sahbuddin, said here Monday that 4,088 of them were infected by this disease within the past three months.
In halting the spread of malaria, the health authorities, community members and other related stakeholders need to work together to create a healthy life condition in the city, he said.
Sahbuddin said the healthy life style was the best option for locals because fogging was so costly but not enough effective in crushing mosquitoes.
"The fund needed for fogging the entire areas of Bengkulu city a year is Rp15 billion. Adopting a healthy life style and keeping our neighborhood clean are the best options," he said.
Therefore, locals were urged to take care of their neighborhood areas and destroy anopheles mosquito breedings by getting rid of stagnant water, especially during the rainy season, he said.
In connection to Indonesia`s vulnerability to malaria attacks, Secretary of the Indonesian Medical Doctors Association (IDI)-West Kalimantan Provincial Chapter Nursyah Ibrahim recently said that it was related to its people`s unhealthy life style.
This condition had even made Indonesia become one of the world`s malaria-vulnerable nations, he said.
According to the Global Fund`s research findings, about seventy percent of Indonesian people were vulnerable to the malaria disease, he said.
In 2009, Indonesia had almost two million malaria cases but there were more cases that were not revealed, he said.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), malaria in Indonesia mainly occurs in Papua, Nusa Tenggara, Sulawesi, Kalimantan, and Sumatra islands.
"It occurs with low frequency or is non-existent in Java and Bali where approximately 70 percent of the population live. All strains of human malaria are to be found in Indonesia," WHO said.
In the past, the eastern parts of Indonesia were home to P. malariae and P.ovale, but the two strains had also been found in Lampung Province and Nias Island, North Sumatra, in recent years.
Indonesia had set itself to become malaria-free by a long shot in 2030.
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