Ministry Of Health Susun Strategi Nasional Overcome Brain Midfield Due To Culex Mosquito Bites

UNSPLASH/Akram ILLUSTRATION Huseyn

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) together with various interests related to compiling a National Strategy for Disease Management of Japanese Encephalitis or inflammation of the brain caused by mosquito bites.

"Today there is a national launch strategy for Japanese Encephalitis (JE) which has been completed. This disease is still a problem in Indonesia," said Director General of Disease Prevention and Control (P2P) of the Ministry of Health Maxi Rein Rondonuwu as reported by ANTARA, Tuesday, July 25.

The Ministry of Health reports that Japanese Encephalitis is a virus from a Mosquito Cux bite infected with the JE virus that causes inflammation of the brain in infected patients.

Although Japanese names appear in the name of the disease, the fact is that the virus does not only attack residents in Japan.

Based on data released by the Central For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) page, at least 20 countries have been infected, such as India, Bangladesh, Japan, Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, Burma, to Sri Langka.

Maxi hopes that the national strategy document for dealing with Japanese Encephalitis compiled through the Asean Dengue Day 2023 Forum will serve as the right direction for efforts to prevent and control cases in Indonesia.

The results of the centinel surveillance that rolled out in 2016 in 11 provinces in Indonesia showed that there were 326 cases of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) with 43 cases (13 percent) of them positive for JE.

Clinical signs from JE cannot be distinguished from other causes of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES), so laboratory confirmation is very important. The JE case is an AES case that has been confirmed positive with a positive laboratory examination (IGM).

As many as 85 percent of JE cases in Indonesia are in the age group of 15 years and 15 percent in the age group over 15 years.

JE case surveillance data in Indonesia in 2016 showed that nine provinces reported cases of JE, namely Bali, West Kalimantan, North Sulawesi, East Nusa Tenggara, DKI Jakarta, DI Yogyakarta, Central Java, West Nusa Tenggara, and Riau Islands.

"Especially in certain areas, one of the most in Bali," he said.

Mosquito Culex is commonly found in rice fields, columns, or areas that have puddles of water and often bite at night. The JE virus requires animals as intermediary hosts such as pigs, buffalo, and several types of birds.

Mosquito Cux is anthrosuphilic in nature, an animal that not only suck animal blood but also suck human blood, therefore the transmission of JE from animals to humans can also occur.

Symptoms in this disease will generally appear 4-14 days after infection occurs, symptoms that appear such as fever, chills, headache, weakness, nausea, vomiting and even seizures that are often experienced by small children.

Although the JE vaccine is currently available, he said, but there is no specific drug to cure the disease, so prevention such as administering vaccines and avoiding mosquito bites is very important to do.