Dengue fever surge kills 28, sickens hundreds in Indonesia

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Dengue fever surge kills 28, sickens hundreds in Indonesia
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Dengue_fever_surge_kills_28_sickens_01252007.html​

Jakarta- While Indonesia has scrambled to contain a
resurgence of bird flu that killed five people, a least 28 people
have died and hundreds were infected in an outbreak of dengue fever
on Java since New Year's Day, a local report said Thursday.
The mosquito-borne disease is at its worse during the current
monsoon season, which creates pools of water that are ideal breeding
places, The Jakarta Post reported.

The worst-hit region has been West Java province, where 23 people
died and 848 were infected since January 1, leaving hospital staffs
scrambling to find enough personnel and space to treat patients.

Four other people, including two children, have died in the
Central Java city of Yogyakarta, and one more in eastern Indonesia,
the paper reported.

"We still cannot predict when the peak of the outbreak will be due
to changeable climate conditions," Maya Sintodewi, a public health
official in Yogyakarta's Bantul regency, was quoted as saying.

The situation in Central Java is potentially direr this year
because tens of thousands of people remain in makeshift emergency
shelters following the May 2006 earthquake there and are more
susceptible to mosquito bites.

Dengue infects up to 50 million people worldwide a year, and
South-east Asia and the Western Pacific are the worst-hit regions.
Dengue hemorrhagic fever is a lethal complication of the disease, and
is a leading cause of hospitalization and death among children in
several Asian countries, according to the World Health Organisation.

? 2006 - dpa German Press Agency
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