25 April 2007
Jakarta - Around 95 million Indonesians are vulnerable to contracting malaria due to a severe outbreak affecting more than two-thirds of the country's 441 districts, health activists said Wednesday. "Around 95 million people, or 42 per cent of the total population in Indonesia, are risk of malaria," said Ferdinand Leihad, deputy principal recipient of Global Fund against Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
An extraordinary outbreak in several provinces, mainly in eastern and western Indonesia, that began last year has killed at least 23 people and sickened more than 1,050 others, he said.
"In Indonesia, 310 out of a total of 441 districts are endemic areas," Leihad said, including on the islands of Sumatra, Maluku, Papua and several eastern islands within East Nusa Tenggara province.
Ferdinand, a former director of the malaria eradication agency at the Indonesian Health Ministry, said rapid mobilization of migrant workers around country and increasing urbanization were among several reasons for the outbreak.
Indonesia, an archipelago nation of more than 17,000 islands with a tropical climate subject to monsoons, provides an ideal habitat for the female Anopheles mosquito that spreads malaria, he explained.
Health officials have said malaria mosquitoes live in dense forests, swamps and beach areas and that there were as many as 80 species of the Anopheles mosquito in Indonesia. Many of them have built up resistance to certain insecticides, making it more difficult to eradicate them.
Ferdinand advised people who planned to travel to malaria-prone areas, such as Papua in Indonesia's easternmost region, should take malaria tablets beforehand.
Malaria is caused by a parasite carried by the mosquitoes, which usually bite at night, he said, urging people to use mosquito nets while sleeping.
"It is important that the most vulnerable people - pregnant women and children under the age of 5 years - sleep under mosquito nets to avoid malaria," Ferdinand told reporters during a briefing to mark the Africa Malaria Day.
He added said the United Nations Children's Fund had distributed more than 2.5 million mosquito nets to villages in East Nusa Tenggara.
Ferdinand said people suffering from shivers combined with headaches and vomiting may be infected and should immediately go to a nearby health centre.
More than 1 million people worldwide die of malaria yearly, 90 per cent of them in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the World Health Organization.
