Ministry Of Health: IKN Enters The High Endemic Area Of Malaria

Sepaku, Penajam Paser Utara. East Kalimantan/DOK ANTARA

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Health reported that part of the border area of the capital city of Nusantara (IKN), East Kalimantan, including areas with high endemic status of malaria cases in Indonesia.

"Most of the endemicity maps of malaria in the eastern region, Papua, South Sulawesi, and East Kalimantan," said Director of Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases at the Ministry of Health, Imran Pambudi, as reported by ANTARA, Tuesday, May 2.

Imran said North Penajam Paser Regency in East Kalimantan Province, including areas that contributed to the number of national malaria cases, as many as 1,228 cases in 2022.

malaria cases in North Penajam Paser have an Annual Parasite Incidence (API) or an infection rate of 7.6 from a safe limit of less than 1, so they are categorized as a high endemic of malaria.

Meanwhile, the Head of the Malaria Working Team from the P2PM Directorate of the Ministry of Health Hellen Dewi Prameswari said 60 percent of the IKN area is domiciled in North Penajam Paser Regency and another 40 percent are included in the Kutai Kartanegara area.

"North Paser sharpeners are like the estuary of the case because they are cross-border IKN with Kutai Kartanegara. The area is still high endemic, the point is at the border," he said.

Data from the Ministry of Health reports that from 10 regencies/cities in East Kalimantan Province, four of them have malaria elimination status, two low endemic districts/cities, three moderate endemic districts/cities, and one high endemic, namely Penajam Paser Utara.

"The problem there is because of the increase in forests so we want to solve it," he said.