Indonesia Dengue Outbreak Slows, Toll Hits 452

Indonesia’s dengue fever outbreak, which has killed 452 people this year, is showing signs of slowing, officials said on Monday.

Indonesia’s dengue fever outbreak, which has killed 452 people this year, is showing signs of slowing, officials said on Monday. The Health Ministry said the worst of the outbreak had passed and they expected to bring the disease under control within a few weeks. “The situation has subsided…The data shows a decline in the rate of increase,” I Nyoman Kandun told Reuters. “We hope by April the situation will be back to normal.” The dengue fever outbreak has so far claimed 452 lives, with 34,463 cases recorded since January 1. The death toll is more than double the number at the some time last year. Thomas Suroso, director for animal-borne diseases at the Health Ministry, said the outbreak was not the result of a new strain of the virus, confirming earlier comments by the World Health Organization. “Most of the samples have been checked and no new strain type occurs,” Suroso told Reuters. The WHO has said the outbreak was part of a five-year cycle common in tropical countries. The disease strikes annually during the rainy season in Indonesia. The Aedes aegypti mosquito, which carries the disease, lives and reproduces around stagnant puddles of water common in inner-city slums during the monsoons from October to April. There is no vaccine for dengue fever, which causes high fever and hemorrhaging. (Source: Reuters Health, March 2004)