REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BALIKPAPAN -- Health Department of East Kalimantan revealed that patients of Acute Respiratory Infection (ISPA) reached 39,804 people in September and early October 2015. ISPA was caused by smog of forest fires occurred in Kalimantan.
According to Head of Health Department of East Kalimantan, Rini Suksesi Retno, previously in July to August ISPA patients reached 38,858 people in East Kalimantan.
"In general, air condition in Kaltim was getting worse. Therefore, we asked the public, especially parents, to put on masks to children. If there is no urgent or important need, they are better not to leave home," she said, in Samarinda, Monday (19/10).
Smog that occurred in East Kalimantan gave impact on respiratory disease, eyes irritation, and heart attack. It was because smog can cause oxygen levels in human body decreases.
"With the unhealthy air condition, children's brains are also getting distracted, so that life quality of children was increasingly worrying," Rini added.
With this bad condition, she hoped there would be no pneumonia or other diseases that cause death in children and toddlers.
In addition ISPA, there was also an increase in diarrhea patients. Until the end of September, Rini revealed, the number of diarrhea patients reached 39,953 people in East Kalimantan.
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