inp.polri.go.id - Jakarta. Health expert, Professor Tjandra Yoga Aditama, said that the DKI Jakarta Health Service must intensify their public education about infectious diseases during the rainy season, one of which is dengue fever (DBD).

He said that this could be done to anticipate the emergence of new cases of infectious diseases as the rainy season approaches.

In his statement, he revealed that during the rainy season, there will usually be an increase in the aedes aegypti mosquito numbers, which is the mosquito that transmits the dengue fever.

In addition to dengue fever, other threatening infectious diseases are diarrhea. 
He said that during floods, people's drinking water sources from shallow wells are often contaminated.

"In addition, during floods there is a possibility of evacuations in some areas with very limited facilities at the evacuation site, including clean waters,” said Tjandra.

Other diseases that can also appear during the rain is leptospirosis. This disease is caused by leptospira bacteria and is transmitted through rat feces and urine.

During the rainy season, especially when there is a flood, rats that live in sewers and ground holes will also come out to save themselves. The rats can roam around the neighborhood area and their feces and urine can mix with the flood water.

"When someone who has an open wound goes into the flood water that was already mixed with rat feces and urine, they could be infected by the Leptospira bacteria,” explains Tjandra.

On the other hand, he also reminds of the potential of increasing acute respiratory infections (ARI) in the rainy season, then skin diseases, as well as other digestive tract-related diseases such as typhoid fever.

Therefore, in order to anticipate the emergence of new cases of infectious diseases, in addition to counseling, the Jakarta Health Office must also identify areas in Jakarta that are vulnerable to an increase in various infectious diseases during the rainy season.

He said that every sub-district health center in Jakarta must identify vulnerable community groups in their respective areas, including the elderly.

In addition, the Health Office must be ready to mobilize health cadres in each sub-district and ensure that Jakarta's health services are ready and can provide health services to residents, with three main principles. Namely quality, responsiveness, then friendly and humane.

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