Dengue Fever

Hello everyone,

I've got some bad news from the Oasis. Last Thursday Inge and Ade decided to close the Oasis for now because there were just too many cases of dengue fever in the village. Since then, the number of sick people has been steadily increasing. Jagaraga is a really small village and almost 40 people are sick and 13 of them are kids from the Oasis. Many have already been hospitalised since this illness is really none to play around with.

In some cases the dengue fever turns into 'Demam Berdarah' and when the fever sinks the number of thrombocytes also sinks extremely. If the number of thrombocytes sinkes too much, the patient will need blood transfusions. And getting a blood transfusion is not easy here! Usually that means that the relatives of the patient have to start looking for donors themselves.

As you can tell, it is a serious illness, so in order to not get infected, too, and since not many kids would come anyway, the Oasis was closed down for now.

The 'bathroom'.

We don't know yet when we are going to open up again. That depends entirely on the villagers of Jagaraga. The dengue fever is spread by mosquitos and there are way too many in the village right now.

That't because it is so dirty. The people usually don't have drains and all the water from cooking, cleaning plates and washinig themselves can't drain away, which makes perfect breeding places for mosquitos. And all the trash that is everywhere makes it perfect for mosquitos.

No, this is not a junkyard. It used to be a lawn.

Before the village is cleaned thoroughly the number of mosquitos is not going to decrease and therefore the dengue fever will not go away either. Unfortunately the people don't feel responsible for all the trash and don't seem to want to clean up anytime soon.

 

Let's hope that everything gets better and that we can open up the Oasis again as soon as possible.



This Ibu just casually hangs up her laundry next to a pile of trash. Cleaning it up would never come to her mind or to anyone elses. Usually people here wait for the government to clean up because they feel that it is their responsibility.



I don't even want to know WHAT all this is! But this dirty water must've been standing there for a loong time!



Since there are no drains there are always puddles of water next to the wells, the cooking and the washing places.



The department of health already got involved. In this picture they are showing a cartoon movie about giant mosquitos who are attacking the village to the people. An important issue. The whole village was supposed to come but only women ended up coming. Apparently the matter wasn't important enough to require the mens presence.



Of cause we did a grand clean up at the Oasis! :)