Dengue is an endemic disease in tropical and sub-tropical areas caused by a viral infection. Cases of dengue virus infection are reported more than 250,000-500,000 in the world each year. This disease is transmitted by Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, the transmission of this virus is caused by interactions between humans, mosquitoes as vectors, and environmental factors. Dengue virus has 4 serotypes namely DENV-1, DENV-2, DENV-3 and DENV-4. The four serotypes are further classified into several genotypes based on the base sequence of the envelope region. Disease caused by this virus infection in Indonesia was first discovered in Jakarta and Surabaya in 1968. In the following year dengue virus infection began to spread in all provinces in Indonesia.
In 2013 in Semarang it was reported that the dominance of type 1 dengue virus infection (DENV-1) with genotype I and genotype II, this genotype II was found again after 3 decades. In the same year, in Sukabumi, it was reported that infection with dengue virus type 2 (DENV-2) with the Cosmopolitan genotype was more dominant in prevalence, followed by DENV-1 and DENV-4. Paniai District in Papua Province has been reported to have DENV infection, even though Papua is a non-endemic area for the spread of this virus. Based on research using the Immunofluorescence Assay method in Paniai Regency, it was confirmed that there was DENV activity, from 158 serum samples from healthy people, 116 serum samples were positive for having antibodies against DENV.
Research on DENV serotypes in Surabaya began in 2007, based on this study it was reported that DENV-1, DENV-2, DENV-3 and DENV-4 circulate in Surabaya, and have different serotype and genotype dominance each year. The difference in dominance is due to the presence of circulating DENV in the population. The dominance of DENV-2 in June-October 2008 and July-September 2013, DENV-1 was dominant in November 2008 to June 2013, and DENV-4 in July 2008 and February-March 2009. Domination by DENV-2 in Surabaya can be seen in July 2013 to December 2014. This occurred when the dominance of the DENV serotype changed from DENV-1 to DENV-2. In January-February 2013 DENV-3 was reported, from 2008 to 2013 DENV-3 cases were not reported. Based on research from the Dengue Laboratory of the Institute of Tropical Diseases, Airlangga University, it is predicted that in the following year, 2015, there will be a serotype change to DENV-3 and endemic in Surabaya. Data on dengue virus serotypes from 2015 to 2023 cannot be written down because they have not been published in a scientific journal. So it can be concluded that serotype dominance in Surabaya can change every year.
The Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia has created the 3M Plus program to suppress DHF cases, namely draining, closing, burying and plus cleaning the environment. However, cases are still reported in several places every year. Efforts to prevent DHF are needed, starting from oneself so that the disease does not spread more widely, namely by: 1) draining the bath once a week and adding larvae-eating fish to the bath; 2) Clean the water storage containers, such as water storage barrels, dispensers, and water reservoirs behind the refrigerator; 3) Install mosquito nets; 4) Don’t hang dirty clothes for too long, because clothes that contain sweat are liked by mosquitoes; 5) Use mosquito repellent cream; 6) Clean the environment around the house; 7) Planting plants that mosquitoes don’t like, such as citronella, geranium flowers, basil, stye flowers, lavender flowers, etc.; and 8) fogging.
Author: Teguh Hari Sucipto