Tuesday, February 9, 2010 12:32 WIB
Martapura, S Kalimantan (ANTARA) - Chikungunya caused by the Alphavirus virus and spread by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, has infected thousands of people in South Kalimantan.

The number of Chikungunya affected people in Banjar regency alone had reached 4,500 people in the past 40 days, Head of the Banjar Disease Prevention Agency Endah Labati said here Tuesday.

"The number of patients from early January to the first week of February has reached 4,500, and is expected to rise in this rainy season," she said.

During the rainy season, Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes were easily breeding, Labati said.
The Chikungunya-infected people were located in at least 67 villages in 11 suburbs.

The areas commonly hit by the virus were surrounded by forests, she said.
In preventing the spread of the virus, local health officers had conducted fogging of high-risk villages and suburbs.

Residents were also asked to keep their neighborhood clean by frequently throwing, closing, or buyring rain water-preserving goods so that the mosquitoes could not breed inside them.

"The fogging will only kill adult mosquitoes while the larvae remain alive in the water. Therefore removing, closing, or burying the water-holding goods are also important," she said.

During the rainy season, South Kalimantan province is vulnerable to the spread of Chikungunya. On February 3, the disease also attacked a number of areas in Kotabaru.

However, unlike serious diseases, Director of the Kotabaru public hospital dr Nurahman said Chikungunya patients did not always had to be rushed to a hospital.

"Total bed rust would be sufficient, eating and drinking normally, the disease will go away by itself," he said.

He said Chikungunya normally attacked in the rainy season. "However, the disease is not fatal," he said.(*)