DENGUE KILLS ONE, INFECTS 26 OTHERS IN MAMUJU

Mamuju, West Sulawesi, Feb. 7 (ANTARA) - A dengue fever outbreak killed one person and infected 26 others in Mamuju District, West Sulawesi Province, a local health official said.

The Mamuju health office declared the disease outbreak in the district as an extraordinary happening to anticipate the spreading of dengue fever, Firmon, the Mamuju health service head, said here on Saturday.
The 26 patients of dengue fever were currently being hospitalized in Mamuju Public Hospital, he said.
The health office has distributed powder to kill the eggs of aides aegypty mosquitoes, which are usually laid on the surface of stagnant water, and sprayed mosquito repellent, he said.
The local health office also set up 27 command posts in every community health center and hospitals in the district to monitor the disease outbreak.
Dengue is a mosquito-borne infection that causes a severe flu-like illness, and sometimes a potentially lethal complication called dengue haemorrhagic fever.
According to the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, an estimated 50 to 100 million people contact dengue each year in over 100 countries. Recent explosive outbreaks of the disease have occurred in Brazil with 120,570 cases so far in 2008.