IBU Launch a New Project in Health Area

Wednesday, 05 August 2009 07:00

Today, IBU Foundation together with Ministry of Health, Telkomsel, and MCC launch a new project to fight against dengue fever (DF) and dengue hemorrhage fever (DHF). This collaboration is called Peluk Asa which means Perlindungan Keluarga dengan Kasih Sayang (Protecting Family with Care).

According to WHO, Indonesia is in red zone of dengue infection in the world. After first outbreak in 1968 where 58 cases were reported with 41.3% case fatality rate (CFR) there seems no way back as the cases and number of people died keep going up. In 2006, Indonesia contribute 57% (106425) cases in SEARO countries, 1132 of them died, many are children.

As there's no medicine available to treat DF/DHF, we focus on promotive and preventive area. We use Behavioral Change Communication (BCC) method combined with Participatory Action Plan (PLA) to accomplish this. This method is based on suggested method by WHO called COMBI (communication for behavioral impact). The big goal of this project is to contribute to reduce dengue incidence and mortality in Indonesia.

For the first year we conduct pilot project in 14 cities in 14 Provinces all over Indonesia including Medan, Padang, Bandar Lampung, Balikpapan, East Jakarta, Depok, Bekasi, Cimahi, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Makassar, Manado, Mataram, and Sorong.