After the flood comes disease The Jakarta Post 30 jan,
Jakarta
As floods in Kampung Melayu, East Jakarta, have not yet receded, flood-related diseases have begun to infect residents sheltering at the St. Maria Fatimah school.
Tempointeraktif.com reported on Saturday that many of the residents complained of diarrhea, high fever and skin rashes.
A medical worker from Jatinegara public health center assigned to the health post in the shelter, Rosita Simanjuntak, said that at least 115 of the temporary homeless had received medical treatment without being charged any fees.
Currently the shelter is home to 550 people.
“They stay out in the open mostly … It makes the people, especially children, susceptible to illness,” the health officer claimed without elaborating.
She also explained that poor sanitation at the school also had the potential to cause disease. Although there are four large trash bins at the shelter, the people are not using them, as evidenced by the food and drink waste scattered everywhere around the school grounds.
Another Kampung Melayu resident, nine-year-old Muhammad Aldi, was taken to the hospital on Friday thought to have come down with a case of dengue fever.
According to his father, Abdul Rohman, 35, his son had complained of high fever since Monday night, before the waist-high floodwater inundated their home early Tuesday.
But the father of three did not take Aldi to see a doctor until later as he insisted upon braving the flood from atop his roof.
It was on Wednesday that Rohman brought Aldi to the health post in St. Maria Fatimah school compound. As the cold medicine was not working, he took his son to see a doctor at the Jatinegara public health center on Thursday.
The family finally decided Friday to take Aldi to the hospital for a blood test as recommended by the health center doctor.
On Sunday, the crisis center of Jakarta’s disaster mitigation task force warned of rising water levels at the Manggarai floodgate. “It started rising at about 4 a.m.,” said on-duty official Rusli Sudani. The water has reached 810 centimeters, he said. Floods may occur in Central and South Jakarta if the water level goes above nine meter