PRESIDENT ORDERS HEALTH AUTHORITIES TO HELP GIRL WITH STRANGE DISEASE

Jakarta, Jan 22 (ANTARA) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered the health ministry and health office in West Sulawesi to provide Ummi Darmiati, a girl suffering from a rare disease, with the best possible medical treatment.

The 12-year-old girl's life was in danger as hundreds of larvae had been gnawing at her flesh under the skin over the past two years.

President Yudhoyono told reporters here Friday that he was deeply concerned about Darmiati's health condition amid the financial constraints of her poor family in West Sulawesi province.

The Head of State said he had asked Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih and Head of Mamuju's Health Office Ahmad Azis, to take immediate action to assist her until she was completely cured.

"I have called the health minister to intervene and take immediate action so that Ummi Darmiati can well be treated in hospital, and doctors soon know the causes of her ailment," he said.

With the best medical treatment to her, the people's curiosity of finding what was really happening to her could also be fulfilled.

In his conversation with Ahmad Azis, President Yudhoyono said he had actually been informed on Darmiati's strange sickness two years ago. But over the past two years, she just received an "alternative" treatment to help her recover from the sickness.

"This is a good lesson for the people at large. A lot of similar cases to Darmiati's in the society due to the lack of openness when ones get sick."
"Moreover, local public health centers' authorities always are not aware of such those cases," he said.

To avoid the same cases in the future, President Yudhoyono called on the people all over the country to have medical checks up first at public health clinics.

"I have asked the health ministry's people and local government officials to improve public awareness of going to state health centers and hospitals if they get sick," he said.

The unconventional treatments were only given to the ailing after he or she had been handled by doctors but the medical treatments were unsuccessful, he said.

In improving the people's awareness of the importance of going to hospital or public health centers, President Yudhoyono also asked heads of suburbs and villages to support the public health education.

Ummi Darmiati, year six student in Tabulahan sub-district, Mamasa regency, has been hospitalized at Mamuju's public hospital since five days ago after hundreds of worms reportedly gnaw on her body.
The larvae have been attacking her over the past two years but she was taken to the local hospital less than a week ago after she had weakened and lost her conciousness.

Due to financial difficulties, Darmiati's parents just provided her with non-medical treatments.

Mamuju hospital's doctors said they were concerned with a possibility that the worms might have reached Darmiati's head because the animals had spread to her neck, chick, arms, and thigh.