Sunday April 27, 2008
Shah Alam tops dengue list with 719 cases
By AUDREY EDWARDS
KUALA LUMPUR: Five municipal councils have been singled out as hotspots for dengue fever in the first three months of the year.
They are Shah Alam (719 cases), Klang (582), Johor Baru (536), Kajang (514) and Subang Jaya (457).
Asian agenda: Liow speaking with participants of the Asian Parliamentarians’ Meeting on Population and Development at the Parliament building in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai said: “It looks quite serious in the Klang Valley.”
Speaking to reporters yesterday after opening the 24th Asian Parliamentarians’ Meeting on Population and Development: “Climate Change, Infectious Diseases and Population Issues”, he said: “We have to really look into all measures.”
Liow also revealed that Selangor topped the list for dengue fever with 3,742 cases. This was followed by Kuala Lumpur (1,119) and Perak (1,084).
“We can prevent this. But we need the cooperation and support of the public besides cooperation of agencies especially local councils to come forward and work with the ministry.
Then, we should be able to reduce the number of dengue fever cases.” There has been a 29% decline this year compared to the period between Jan 1 and March 31 last year, which saw 34 deaths. So far, 25 people have died.
Noting that the rates were still “controllable”, Liow said that 25 deaths were still considered serious.
“This is still a very big number. It is very sad that this has happened,” he said, adding that a total of 629,554 premises were inspected nationwide.
The ministry continues to intensify efforts to completely eliminate dengue fever with steps such as early detection, health education and destroying breeding grounds of the aedes mosquito, he said.
Earlier in his speech, he said infectious diseases such as dengue and malaria spread because of changing temperatures and rainfall patterns, which altered geographical distribution of the insect vectors.
Disease Control Division director Datuk Dr Hasan Abdul Rahman in a press statement posted on the ministry’s website said there were 776 dengue cases with one death reported from April 13 to April 16.
This was an increase of 35 cases from the week before.
It had been reported that an immediate stop work order was carried out on 25 construction sites in the Klang Valley by the Selangor Health Department for failing to keep the areas free from the aedes mosquito.
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