TEMPO.CO, Yogyakarta – Yogyakarta Health Agency has called on residents in the province to maintain vigilance against the spread of upper respiratory-tract infection (ISPA) during the weather transition period, which was marked by extreme heat in October.
“ISPA has posed a major threat because dust particles are becoming more active due to the frequent, strong winds,” the agency’s chief of health information unit, Tri Maryono, told Tempo on Sunday, October 12, 2014.
Tri added dust particles in the province had not been entirely sterile of volcanic ashes from Kelud Mountain, which erupted in February and caused at least 1,315 people to contract ISPA.
Yogya Hospital director Tutik Setyawati said ISPA was the secondary impact after dust particles hit the body, which later trigger severe dehydration due to extreme hot weather. “In this extreme heat, ISPA can easily affect people who are in weak condition, lacking liquid and suffering from sore throat,” she said.
Separately, Indah Retno Wulan, a staffer at the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency of Yogyakarta, Indah Retno Wulan, said temperatures in the province were at the tune of 34-35 degree Celcius with a wind speed of 15-22 km/h in October.
The highest temperature was recorded in 2009 when Yogyakarta saw 37 degree Celcius in daylight following El Nino and La Nina weather phenomena.
PRIBADI WICAKSONO
