Dengue cases in Selangor hit a plateau
PUTRAJAYA: There are signs showing that the dengue cases in Selangor have hit a plateau.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam said the ministry would monitor the situation to determine whether it was a temporary or permanent trend.
He said efforts to fight dengue would continue as planned and the cabinet had approved RM27 million in additional allocations.
He said the ministry would distribute more than 100,000 dengue diagnostic kits for free to private clinics in the Klang Valley to ensure fast diagnosis could be made.
“The kit is free and private medical practitioners must not charge it to their patients’. If they do so, the ministry will blacklist them.”
Dr Subramaniam said the extra funding would be used to beef up the manpower for dengue control activities and to engage the private sector in fogging activities.
He said Kelantan had a higher number of dengue cases last week with 1,160 cases, surpassing Selangor, with 1,042 cases reported .
“We acted fast to arrest the rising number of dengue cases in Kelantan by mobilising 19 teams of health personnel from Pahang and Terengganu.”
Dr Subramaniam said the ministry would focus on east coast states, which now have increasing numbers of dengue cases.
Kelantan recorded 569 dengue cases between July 27 and Aug 2, while Terengganu had 23 cases and Pahang, 15 cases in the same period.
The following week, the number of dengue cases in Kelantan surged to 1,160 cases; Terengganu to 60 cases and Pahang 46 cases.
Last week, a total of 2,980 cases were reported across the country, an increase of 1,146 cases or 62 per cent compared with 1,834 cases the previous week.
A total of 59,790 cases of dengue were recorded until Aug 9, with 123 deaths.
On attempts to spread the fear of the Ebola virus in Malaysia by using a picture of a girl via the social media, Dr Subramaniam said he would make a report to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) on the matter.
“Based on what I saw as a doctor, the child was likely to have been scalded by boiling water.”
