Three months on, haze-choked Indonesia records over 400,000 respiratory infections

JAKARTA: More than 400,000 people in Indonesia have suffered from haze-linked respiratory illness since August, its health ministry said, raising concerns over the long-term health implications of toxic smoke from wildfires that have been raging for months in the Southeast Asian country.

Thick haze, caused by forest and land fires in Borneo, Sumatra and Papua, have blanketed parts of Indonesia since August, sending smoke also into neighboring Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Brunei and Timor Leste, while pushing air quality indices into “unhealthy” levels.

Indonesian health authorities recorded 401,686 cases of acute respiratory infection between Aug. 18 and Nov. 2 in seven provinces of Sumatra and Borneo, which are hardest-hit by wildfires.