PUTRAJAYA: The number of dengue cases and deaths has doubled and the Health Ministry is urging Malaysians to wage war against the disease immediately.
Its director-general Tan Sri Dr Ismail Merican said that from Jan 4-17 this year, there were 3,211 cases with eight deaths, compared with 1,514 cases and four deaths during the period in 2008.
“That’s a 212% increase,” he said at a press conference here on Monday.
The states with the most cases were Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, followed by Penang, Johor, Sarawak and Kedah, he said.
According to the statistics provided by the Ministry, there were four deaths in Selangor, one in the Federal Territories (Kuala Lumpur/Putrajaya), one in Perak and two in Johor.
Dr Ismail said the Ministry was discovering atypical or unusual symptoms with the more severe cases.
“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 attacks, jaundice with pain in the abdomen, hepatitis and kidney or liver failure,” he said.
As the result of the atypical presentation, some of the diagnoses were made late, he added.
“We have informed all our doctors to add dengue testing if a patient has fever and weird symptoms in high dengue cases states,” he said.
The Ministry spent RM1.7mil on campaigns to create greater awareness of dengue and issued a total of RM3.4mil in fines last year on those found with mosquito larvae in their premises.
Dr Ismail urged community leaders to organise gotong-royong (communal) clean-up efforts and to keep the public abreast of the outbreak,
Doctors should inform state health departments immediately whenever there is a suspected case so that fogging can be carried out immediately in the affected area.
“Those with symptoms such as fever, rashes, muscle aches, vomiting and bleeding must seek treatment immediately,” he said, adding that the most critical phase of the infection is between 24 and 48 hours of the onset of the infection.
In JOHOR BARU, the state Health Department said it would be enlisting the help of community groups and private clinics in its war against dengue. Two deaths have been reported in the state this year.
Its director Dr Mohd Khairi Yakub said that department personnel would go down to the ground more to spread awareness within the community.
“We will be having more awareness programmes as well as gotong-royong activities to get the message across to the public.
“We will be working closely with community groups to ensure the effectiveness of the programmes,” he said when contacted here on Monday.
The department would also urge private clinics to cooperate by informing the department more quickly of patients infected with dengue.
Dr Mohd Khairi said that last year, there were 16 deaths from more than 3,000 cases reported statewide -- 80% of these cases were in Johor Baru.
“We will also intensify fogging operations, but public awareness is more important as fogging alone cannot solve the problem permanently,” he said.
Sumber: NST
