Faculty of Medicine UGM has called on members of the public to keep alerted against the dengue fever. Reports issued by the Yogyakarta Health Agency in 2014 showed that in the past ten years the dengue fever trend has increased from January to April.
“Early preparedness is very important to prevent the spread of the dengue fever,” said researcher of the Eliminate Dengue Project (EDP) from the Faculty, dr. Riris Andono Ahmad, MPH., Ph.D, on Monday (2/2) at UGM.
Riris said the Yogyakarta regional government has issued Gubernatorial Instruction No 6/INST 2/2014 bearing in mind the dengue fever in Indonesia has increased very sharply every 3-5 years. This year falls on the 5-year cycle.
Furthermore, Riris explained the development of Wolbachia method as a natural approach to prevent the fever. Wolbachia is a natural bacteria that can minimise the ability of the Aedes aegypti mosquito to transmit the dengue virus to humans.
“Our research is located in Sleman and Bantul. The dengue control mechanism with the Wolbachia is expected to be one alternative to dengue controls in Yogyakarta,” Riris confirmed.
Another researcher, dr. Eggi Arguni, Ph.D., Sp.A, hoped the community would be more alerted to identifying the spread of the disease and its symptoms. They are also asked to clean, bury and close places vulnerable to be inhabited by mosquitoes.
“At school this needs to be socialised, too. School children are encouraged to use lotion or repellent or wearing long pants in order not to be bitten by mosquitoes,” Eggi added.