Local H1N1 cases nearly double to 52

Local H1N1 cases nearly double to 52

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Fri, 07/10/2009 2:54 PM | Headlines 

The Health Ministry pledged Thursday to do everything possible to curb the spread of the H1N1 variant of influenza A, as the number of confirmed cases nationwide almost doubled to 52 in the last couple of days. 

Minister Siti Fadillah Supari said her office was on high alert, after 24 more people from across the country were reported to have contracted the flu virus. 

"We'll continue thermal scanning at airports to monitor the health of people entering the country," she said at a press conference in Jakarta, adding all 52 cases in Indonesia were of the mild variety. 

Siti added the influenza A virus had now spread beyond the northern part of Sumatra, into Kalimantan province. 

Sixteen of the newly suspected patients are undergoing treatment at three hospitals in Jakarta, while three others were admitted to Adam Malik Hospital in Medan, North Sumatra, one to Bali's Sanglah General Hospital, two to Hasan Sadikin Hospital in Bandung, West Java, and two to Kanujoso Djati Hospital in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan. 

"It seems like it has spread everywhere," Siti said. 

Fourteen of the new patients had traveled aboard prior to contracting the flu. Three are foreigners, while the rest are Indonesian citizens. 

The three suspects undergoing intensive medical treatment in Medan have tested positive for the flu. 

Previously, health expert Handrawan Nadesul had warned of a wider spread of the flu. 

"Influenza A spreads more quickly than bird flu, and Indonesia is always vulnerable because the country's bio-security is weak, due to our being a large country," he said recently in Jakarta. 

"When there was an outbreak of bird flu, people still drove their vehicles to the market and back home to residential areas without having washed their tires," he pointed out. 

"Tires can help spread the virus." 

Siti said the H1N1 virus was no more virulent than the regular flu, but the Health Ministry would remain on the alert. 

"We will prepare the target hospitals, the Tamiflu stock and the labs, and improve our public education campaign regarding the H1N1 flu," she said. 

With health authorities in countries such as Hong Kong and Denmark reporting that some patients are showing resistance to Tamiflu, the WHO-recommended drug to combat the H1N1 infection, Siti said no such cases had been discovered in Indonesia. 

"We will research that possibility," she said, adding if a patient was resistant to Tamiflu, prescriptions of other anti-influenza drugs would suffice. 

The WHO has announced the majority of patients will experience mild symptoms and make a full recovery within a week, often in the absence of any form of medical treatment. 

Handrawan pointed out that despite the fact the H1N1 strain had a low mortality rate, countries like Japan and Singapore were taking more measures to contain its spread. 

"They have gone all out and assigned workers to wipe clean the buttons in elevators or lavatory door handles." 

Siti urged people to adopt hygienic and healthy habits, such as washing their hands and wearing masks if they had caught the flu. 

"It is one of the cheapest and most effective ways of containing the spread of the virus," she said. (adh)

Spread the work and not HIV

Pope Benedict previously stressed the Catholic Church was in the forefront of the battle against AIDS. The Vatican encourages sexual abstinence as their answer to fight the spread of the disease. So the Catholic Church has a simple answer; if you are not married or you happen to be gay, or you do not 100 percent trust your husband or wife, don't have sex (are choirboys excluded one wonders?). Very easy for him to say! Well, in Africa, where the pope is currently on a recruiting drive, they seem to be losing the battle. Globally, there are an estimated 33 million (30 million - 36 million) people living with HIV. In 2003 a senior Vatican official claimed condoms had tiny holes in them through which HIV could pass, exposing thousands of people to risk. 

The then head of the Vatican Pontifical Council for the Family, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, said: "The AIDS virus is roughly 450 times smaller than the spermatozoon. The spermatozoon can easily pass through the *net' that is formed by the condom." 

He added, "These margins of uncertainty ... should represent an obligation on the part of the health ministries and all these campaigns to act in the same way as they do with regard to cigarettes, which they state to be a danger." 

The World Health Organization responded at the time by saying that "These incorrect statements about condoms and HIV are dangerous when we are facing a global pandemic which has already killed more than 20 million people, and currently affects at least 42 million." 

Anyone who condemns the use of condoms, or who supports any religious- or idealist-based opinion stated in this column, should also consider another statement made by UNAIDS in their 2008 report was that: "some of the most worrisome increases in new infections are now occurring in populous countries in other regions, one of them being Indonesia. 

"The serious epidemic under way in Indonesia's Papua province is somewhat anomalous in Asia, in that HIV transmission appears to be occurring mainly due to both unprotected sex with a regular partner and paid sex. 

In a province-wide population-based survey in 2006, adult HIV prevalence was 2.4 percent (2.9 percent among men and 1.9 percent among women). 

"Given that only 14 percent of men who buy sex say that they use condoms with sex workers (Ministry of Health *Indonesia* and Statistics Indonesia, 2007), it is not surprising that high HIV infection levels *14 percent-16 percent* have been found among sex workers in parts of the province (National AIDS Commission *Indonesia*, 2006)". 

Spread the work and not HIV. Be safe! Use a condom. 

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/03/27/spread-work-and-not-hiv.html

Key success in overcoming depression

In economic conditions that are less well with the global crisis that has begun to crawl up to the joint economic community, it is possible we are experiencing depression.

In the process of achieving success, not less people will have depression or pressure on the people. 
1.The termination of your relationship work? 
2. Does not pass the exam? 
3. Not be promoted? 
4. Losers in a competition? 
5. Gullible people? 
6. Business go bankrupt? 
7. Convicted doctor exposed to severe disease? 
8. There is a continuous debt? 
9. Time and time again failed to get a job? 
10. On-line business or you work less?

Depression can be defined as a condition of mental depression, and can cause loss of life expectancy, the meaning of life, decrease or even lost a motivation, even sometimes a sense of trust to the self 

Depression occurs because the pressure of living that is too heavy and the soul or mind, we're not able to bear, the fact of life is more cruel than we imagine. All are definitely want to improve or overcome the depression that happened but even more people are sometimes wrong step in overcoming this problem of depression, even given tips or get the person's bias to make the depression. The cause of depression is getting worse: 
• All tips o the depression is not implemented properly, or even to sit silent and alone, or just know. 
• Viewing a negative self - 
• Rejecting or skeptical of advice, opinion or assistance of others. 
• Blame others or blame circumstances themselves 
• Less creative or glued on routine 
• Reject the fact that there 
• Lost on the presence of God / religion 
• All must be designated as (perfectly) 

Success can be when we can overcome depression. How to overcome depression, more precisely, may be able to help. 

1. Trust and make themselves a positive image of yourself 
Back to find the confidence that is beginning to overcome the depression you feel, and try to make ourselves a positive or how we construe themselves in a positive way with the following: 
• Trust and believe that your time is remarkable 
• Trust and believe you are a private good 
• Trust and believe you have the ability
• Remove all prejudice against the poor themselves 
• See back successes that you achieve 

2. Continue to fight 
Sometimes during the depression, we think our power is closed by one person or less. Try to think calmly and improve your defeat or error, there is still opportunity to improve in the future. Do not let us sink into the past and forget the bad thinking of the future better. Past that can not have changed, the future is still a "Golden Opportunity". Try re-ordering the following items for your future.
- Try to create a plan of what should be fixed on the things that make your depression 
- The re-plan or goal that you want, try to rearrange your goals successfully 
- Create a short-term plan as part of your long-term success. 

The above needs to be done with realistic: do from the start today, using the resources that already exist, and the location of life in which you currently reside. Avoid making the program or the target is too high, so can not be done and can not be. 

3. Build a sense of self 
Back on depression, depression can occur due to pressures of life, what is the pressure, is the dissatisfaction of his own self, in fact this can be meaningful and positive negative, depending on how we use. Feeling satisfied that build and encourage a sense is satisfied that good, we really need, sometimes called the ambition that can generate enthusiasm, self motivation and cause. If you lose a job, dropped out of mourning, continued pressure in the bundle, or make your bankruptcy has become a depression. 

This is to change, innovate, change your goals, improve skills, build a more positive character, and so on. This is a much more positive experience rather we just depression, self-pity and blame other people.

4. Improve relationships 
We are sometimes busy in the routines, we forget to improve the relationship. Areas that need relationship is: 
a) the relationship with self: self-control, meditation, self-dialogue, etc., 
b) relationships with other people and 
c) relationship with God (increase of the faith). 
Improve the relationship with yourself will make us quicker to control or withdraw from the situation that does not benefit us. If we realize that we are aware of depression and that we must immediately take action, of course this problem will be different.
• Improving the relationship with the human 
Relations with the human help which we do business in overcoming depression. We must remember that human beings can be grouped into two: 
a) there are people who are a source of depression for us, and 
b) there are people who support a solution on the depression. 
We need (at most) is the second group of people. Do not keep away until we all human, human to all the trauma, or do not believe in all humans. 
• Improving the relationship with God 
There are many way to a solution, we can improve the relationship with the gods, among others: 
a) the increase of faith, 
b) the teachings of the religion we choose to truly feel and believe we have a kind of "togetherness." 
Togetherness here is not that " illusion" (not based and does not effect), but the togetherness that encourage us to do the positive and avoid the negative. 

5. Increasing Tolerance 
Sometimes we can not tolerate any mistakes that we made, we often demand perfection (from other people, from themselves and from this world). We should be more tolerance for build perfection, the tolerance we strive towards perfection gradually, sustainable improvement. Tolerance does not always want to perfect and more easily affected by depression at the time we want to overcome depression, for example, we just did not want to fail again (for the possibility of failure is always there), our anti-tolerance against the weakness of others (all have weaknesses), and so on.

So the solution in the depression that is capable of making a decision to start the activity or something to focus something interesting. How to overcome depression, which is a good way to decrease the level of fear, or optimistic in the future. Fast and does not despair when something does fail, the relationship at both the family and God. Do not forget to reach a success you need the ability to overcome the feeling of depression. So, can overcome the feeling of depression is a first step to achieve success

Rent it, and feel at home

For some people, moving house - or even country - can cause hassles when trying to take the furniture. For others, a change in furniture style is a helpful, even essential, mood-refresher. 

If either of these sounds like you, leasing your furniture could be the best option. 

"Furniture rental makes it easier for those who often relocate, for example like expatriates," said Mellyza Zuladi, a consultant at Arbor & Troy furniture boutique. 

"For expatriates, procedures for shipping furniture from their home countries may be complicated. Not to mention the expensive custom duties and the possible damage." 

Thus, Mellyza said, leasing furniture can be convenient for those who need furniture quickly, while also wanting to feel at home in their new house. 

"In other cases, some people get bored easily with their furniture style. For this reason, furniture rental also makes sense for them," Mellyza said. 

Arbor & Troy furniture boutique has offered rental services since 2006, with options ranging from modern and classic styles to more customized ones. 

"Customers are free to choose short-term or long-term rental periods," Mellyza said, adding the short term was between one month and 12 months, and long-term rental was for more than one year. 

Rental fees vary depending on the packages chosen, she said. But as an illustration, Mellyza said that for a short-term period, leasing furniture for two bedrooms could be around US$100 per month. 

"Meanwhile, for a long-term period, the price tag is from some $300 per month - this includes furnishings for bedrooms and living and dining rooms," Mellyza said. 

According to Mellyza, furniture leasing can do more than just give relief to those relocating individuals or those seeking for an interior design mood change; it can also help people putting on a special event. 

"Some of our customers are interested in leasing furnishings for special events such as exhibitions, seminars or photo shoots," she said. 

Piccadilly furniture gallery also leases out furnishings for special events. 

"The movie Ayat-Ayat Cinta *Verses of Love*, for example, used our ancient English-style furnishings," Girie, Piccadilly's marketing executive, revealed. 

"And because our gallery has this atmosphere of classic English homes, some singers like Diana Pungky filmed their video clips here." 

Piccadilly's prices for furniture rental depend on the customer's budget, she said. 

"It's negotiable. But for renting the space, we have a fixed price of Rp 8.5 million for every four hours," she said, adding the gallery also provides a swimming pool for those planning a party. 

- JP/Dian Kuswandin