Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin has said that fogging is being carried out in areas organizing the XX Papua National Games (PON) to control the spread of malaria.

“In the last two weeks, the Health Ministry has collaborated with the Papua Health Service to carry out fogging activity throughout the venues for PON and also the athletes’ residences to stop malaria spread,” Minister Sadikin said while delivering a virtual press statement here on Monday.

Meanwhile, director of prevention and control of vector and zoonotic diseases at the Health Ministry, Didik Budijanto, said that malaria, which is caused by the bite of a female Anopheles mosquito carrying the Plasmodium parasite, is still confirmed as a highly endemic disease in Papua province.

“As many as 86 percent of the total malaria cases in Indonesia come from Papua province, the rest came from West Papua and Maluku,” Budijanto informed.

The four venues for Papua PON—Jayapura City, Jayapura District, Merauke District, and Mimika District, which includes the Mimika administrative area—fall in the malaria red zone, thus anticipatory steps need to be taken to control infections, he explained.

“Fumigation in all athletes’ and officials’ accommodation, such as hotels and guesthouses, has been made mandatory by the Health Ministry and Papua Health Service,” he added.

The Health Ministry has sent vector control personnel to conduct fogging at least once a week at all lodging facilities, especially on walls and locations close to mosquito habitats, Budijanto said.

Furthermore, at every venue that will hold matches from morning to evening, officials will conduct fogging at least once a week, he informed.

“Except for night matches, we will start fogging the venues two until three hours prior to the game,” he added.

Source: Antara News