Jakarta - More than two-thirds of the 576 districts in Indonesia have been classified as malaria endemic areas, with more than 100 million people at risk of catching the disease, the country's health minister said Thursday. "Malaria is a contagious disease and is still a health problem in the world, including Indonesia," Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said in commemoration of the first World Malaria Day.
A total 424 out of Indonesia's 576 districts and cities had been classified as malaria endemic areas, Supari was quoted as saying by the state-run Antara news agency, adding that around 45 per cent of the total population are at risk of catching the disease.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who attending the World Malaria Day ceremony, symbolically handed over more than two million of mosquito nets and 127,000 packages of anti-malaria tablets to governors from seven provinces classified as endemic malaria regions.
Health ministry officials said recently that 33 of the country's provinces were endemic with malaria, including East Nusa Tenggara, Maluku, Papua and West Papua, North Sumatra and Aceh.
Experts had previously provided several explanations for the high incidence of malaria in the country, including rapid mobilization of the migrant workers in the country and increasing urbanization.
Indonesia, an archipelago nation of more than 17,000 islands with a tropical climate subject to monsoons, provides an ideal habitat for the breeding of malaria-carrying mosquitos.
Malaria mosquitos live in densely forested or swampy areas, and there are up to 80 anopheles mosquito species in Indonesia, many of which are known to have built up resistance to certain insecticides, making to more difficult eradicate them.
Malaria is caused by a parasite carried by mosquitos that usually bite at night, health officials said, urging people to use mosquito nets while sleeping.
