War on dengue

The Health Ministry has declared war on dengue following an alarming rise in cases and related deaths in the first two weeks of the year.

Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai also raised an alarm against chikungunya, which has seen a sharp rise in the number of cases from last year.

Liow, who described the spike in cases as “unusual”, warned that the situation could worsen if there was not enough co-operation from all parties involved.

Liow, setting off alarm bells over the situation, urged relevant parties, including local councils and the public, to work together.

“It is worrying. This is not the responsibility of the Health Ministry alone. The co-operation that we are getting is not good enough to make the measures more effective. We need to take immediate action.

“We are taking dengue fever cases very seriously because the numbers have doubled compared to the same time last year,” he said yesterday.

Liow is part of an MCA delegation, led by president Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat, in Beijing, China.

Figures released by the ministry yesterday showed that from Jan 4 to Saturday, there were 3,211 cases with eight deaths compared to 1,514 cases and four deaths in the same period last year.

The aedes mosquito is the carrier of both dengue and chikungunya.

Liow said the ministry was drawing up more measures to curb the spread of both diseases, adding that it had intensified some of its activities since last year.

They included having more gotong-royong and Communication for Behavioural Impact (Combi) programmes, aimed at educating the people on the dangers of dengue and how to prevent it.

He also said that publicity was being carried out but awareness had not translated into action.

“This is not the time to start blaming people. We need to work harder,” he said.

On dengue hotspots such as Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, he said it was important to work at eradicating the breeding grounds of the aedes mosquito.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Ismail Merican also expressed concern over the sharp increase in the number of dengue and chikungunya cases.

He said the ministry was receiving more atypical (unusual) symptoms in the more severe cases category.

“Patients used to suffer from bleeding and low platelet count but now you can get dengue encephilitis that affects the brain and people can come in with epileptic attack, jaundice with pain in the abdomen, hepatitis and kidney or liver failure,” he said.

As the result of the atypical presentation, some of the diagnosis was made late, he added.

“We have informed all our doctors to add dengue testing if a patient has fever and weird symptoms in states with high dengue cases,” he said.

Dr Ismail also said that there were 364 chikungunya cases reported from Jan 4 to 7 with the majority in Selangor, Kelantan, Perak, Johor, Kedah, Pahang and Penang.

- The Star