Symptoms Only Similar, Surakarta Health Office Denies Elderly Being Treated At Leptospirosis Infectious Hospitals

Banjarsari Sub-district Head Beni Supartono Putro gave a statement to reporters in Solo, Central Java, Monday (25/3/2024). ANTARA/Aris Wasita

Surakarta City Health Office (DKK) denied that any of its citizens died due to contracting leptospirosis. Head of the Disease Prevention and Control Division (P2P) of the Surakarta DKK, Tenny Setyoharini, admitted that there were indeed patients who entered one of the hospitals in Solo with the status of suspected leptospirosis. "But the lab results are negative, maybe because the symptoms are similar," he said in Solo, Central Java, Antara, Monday, March 25. Symptoms felt by a 60-year-old female patient with the initials SH include heat, muscle aches, and vomiting nausea. Despite being proven negative for leptospira bacteria, his party still asked the public to be aware of the disease considering that last year four residents in Solo died from the same disease. "The hope is that people will take care of the environment so that it is cleaner, does not make mice nest in our home environment, if they run out of washing hands with soap and with running water to avoid unwanted diseases," he said. Meanwhile, he said leptospirosis disease was transmitted by animal urine containing leptospira bacteria. "This battery can enter from the wound on the hand or leg when contact with water or media that is contaminated with rat urine with leptospira," he said. Meanwhile, Banjarsari sub-district head Beni Supartono Putro said the information received by the sub-district initially the patient suffered from dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF). "Continue to follow up, he said there were findings of leptospirosis," he said. Related to this, he appealed to the public to be careful of the animals carrying these bacteria.

"That's why it's not just mice, the others must also be watched out for. Eating must also be hygienic," he said.