JakartaGlobe-Apr 23, 2024
Indonesia has seen almost three times as many deaths from dengue fever so far this year compared to the same period last year, as warmer weather triggered by the El Niño climate phenomenon drives up cases across the country. The Health Ministry has discovered roughly 62,000 dengue cases with 475 deaths from January to mid-April, almost triple the 22,500 cases and 170 deaths during the same period last year. In January this year alone, Indonesia saw 25,218 cases of dengue, the highest monthly rate in five years. Dengue-related deaths reached 191 in February, the highest number of monthly fatalities since January 2022. The ministry has blamed the recent outbreak on a warmer rainy season caused by the El Niño climate phenomenon, which speeds up mosquitoes’ life cycles, helping them grow faster and live longer. Warmer temperatures also speed up virus reproduction in infected mosquitoes and increase the frequency of mosquito bites, allowing them to spread diseases more quickly. Dengue fever is a viral disease transmitted through the bite of infected Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, which are commonly found in places with tropical climates such as Indonesia. Masdalina Pane of the Indonesian Epidemiologists Association (PAEI) has advised the government to closely monitor the genomic sequence of the dengue virus to see whether there is a new variant of the disease spreading among the public. She cited a recent statement from Anhar Hadian, the head of the Bandung Health Agency in West Java, who said that the majority of recent dengue patients in Bandung did not exhibit the typical dengue symptom of a red skin rash. Read more at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/indonesia/2024/04/23/dengue-deaths-spike-almost-threefold-compared-to-last-year.html
