City mosquitoes are just as dangerous

Last night I was visiting a friend's place and as we sat down to enjoy a few evening drinks out on the front veranda I asked where his roommates were.  "Oh, one is in the hospital with dengue," he replied. With a casual tone accustomed to Southeast Asian-induced disease and injury I responded, "Oh really? Where did she get it?"  But then he came back with "Oh, from here.  It's the fourth case of dengue coming from this house in two months."  And that was when I asked for some bug spray. 

I have been warned that dengue is endemic to Jakarta and is especially bad during the rainy season, which is right now and promises to last for like eight months this year.  But I still rarely get bitten and even more rarely think to use bug spray, I mean, who wants to soak in Deet for a year?  But the possibility of Dengue, a mere 10 minute ojek ride away from my own home, got me weighing my options a little more.  Particularly since I will be going on vacation tomorrow to more rural parts of Indonesia where mosquitoes also carry malaria. 

Touristy Bali is first on my itinerary (there is my yearly VIA conference to attend) but after that I plan on traveling east to Flores island.  For this trip I have instructed my visiting friend (Abby!! yay!!) to start taking some malaria medication.  I learned this lesson when my last friend to visit chastised me for being completely oblivious to the possibility of malaria (I had already been living deet and malaria free in Sumatra for almost a year) and not warning her to take any medication.  Sorry Claire, but at least Abby will benefit from the lesson you taught me.  So with this new perspective I am going to try to be a little more responsible than the last time I took a friend to the far reaches of Indonesia and also try to locate myself some malaria meds in Bali.  They should be used to uber-cautious Western travelers looking for malaria meds right?