Date: Tue 9 Mar 2010

Source: The Jakarta Globe [summ. ProMed Mod.TY, edited]

<http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/chikungunya-hits-hard-in-rainy-season/362940>

A 66-year-old drink vendor says she just recovered from a "kind of" rheumatic pain in her joints. She suffered high fevers at night and drastic chills in the morning, forcing her to stay in bed for 2 weeks. "I had never heard of chikungunya until people said that's what I was suffering from. It's terrible," she told the Jakarta Globe in front of Bekasi Hospital in West Java. She is now fully recuperated, though the cheap, over-the-counter flu drugs she used probably had little to do with her recovery.

Bekasi, located on the outskirts of Jakarta, has a long history of chikungunya [virus infections], with the last serious outbreak taking place in 2002. "It's a typical suburban disease," said Rita Kusriastuti, the Health Ministry's director of Vector-Borne Diseases. "The mosquitoes that transmit the virus like plants and farm areas, [as well as] puddles." [_Aedes aegypti_ breeds in water catchments in and around houses, in both rural and urban areas. - ProMed Mod.TY]

She said that in the past few months, chikungunya [virus] had spread to many parts of the country, with Lampung and Bangka-Belitung provinces reporting the highest number of cases -- primarily in suburban and semi-rural districts. Cases also have been reported in parts of Java and Kalimantan.

According to state-run Antara news agency, the ministry reported that almost 20 000 people were infected with chikungunya from January to February [2010] in Lampung alone. That is more than the total number of dengue fever cases in the province in a typical year.

The ministry, Rita said, has been working to curb the transmission of the disease through public awareness campaigns. "We ask people to keep their surroundings and water supply clean to prevent their backyards from becoming breeding grounds for mosquitoes," she said. She said fumigation campaigns also had been introduced to kill mosquitoes in areas suffering particularly bad outbreaks.

However, Rita said the rise in the number of cases over the 1st 3 months of the year [2010] pointed to the possibility of insecticide resistance among adult mosquitoes as a result of the frequent fumigation. "We haven't scientifically looked into the possibility. But, overall, the situation is still under control," she said.

The name "chikungunya" is derived from a Swahili word that means "that which bends up," apparently a reference to the stooped posture that develops due to the arthritis-like symptoms of the disease. Upik Kesumawati Hadi, an entomologist from the Bogor Institute of Agriculture, said that clinically, chikungunya was not considered a serious threat because it was a self-limiting disease that would resolve itself. She added that the length of the recovery period for chikungunya ranged from one week to one month, depending on an individual's immune system. "It's a problem because sufferers cannot go about their normal activities, which means not being able to work," she said. "The only effective preventive measure for the spread of chikungunya [virus transmission] is to break the vector's cycle," she said.

Upik said that contrary to popular belief, _Aedes aegypti_ mosquitoes could bite humans at anytime of the day, although they preferred dusk and dawn. [Byline: Dessy Sagita, Dimas Siregar]
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[A map showing the political divisions of Indonesia mentioned above can be accessed at
<http://www.mapsofworld.com/indonesia/indonesia-political-map.html>.

A HealthMap/ProMED-mail interactive map of Indonesia can be accessed at
<http://healthmap.org/r/008P>. - ProMed Mod.TY]