The Correlation of Climatic Factors with Incidence of Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever in Palembang Bari General Hospital

Abstract

An estimated 50 million dengue infections occur worldwide every year, nonetheless in Palembang that the death of dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) continues to be a public health problem. Several factors such as characteristic determinants and climate factors caused a high rate of DHF. The study aims to determine the correlation of patients' characteristics and climatic factors with the incidence of DHF in the general hospital of RSUD Palembang Bari from January 2015 to August 2019. The study was an analytic observational study with a cross-sectional design, using 309 patients' data and climatic factors obtained from the climate office of the BMKG of Palembang. The sampling technique using a simple random sampling method and the analysis using the chi-square test and the Spearman correlation test. The results showed that the characteristics of DHF patients were a median age of 14 years, dominated by male patients (57,3%), and secondary education level (33,8%). The climatic factors that correlate with the incidence of DHF (p = 0.032) were the air temperature, while other factors such as rainfall (p = 0.797) and relative humidity (p = 0.718) were not significant. The highest incidence of dengue during 2015-2019 occurred around March-April each year. It is necessary to routinely carry out breading place eradication practice 2-3 months before the surge.