SARNATA, 61, lay helplessly in the Mawar room, Regional General Hospital (RSUD) of Tarakan, Central Jakarta. He was fed intravenously through the wrist. The old man had been in intensive care for over a week as he had succumbed to leptospirosis.

The disease struck after flood water inundated his house in the dense settlement of Ketapang Utara I, Krukut, West Jakarta, on February 2. This situation forced him and his family to stay soaked in filthy