KUALA LUMPUR, August 14 — A state executive councillor urged residents to be more proactive in preventing dengue, even as Selangor has reported the highest dengue rate in Malaysia.
Free Malaysia Today reported Selangor Health, Welfare, Women Empowerment and Family Committee chairman Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud as saying that Selangor residents are slow when it comes to taking personal steps to prevent the breeding of mosquitoes.
“They are very comfortable and happy to see anti-dengue sprayers coming to their housing area when there is a dengue case,” she was quoted saying at a health-themed dialogue in Shah Alam yesterday.
“I wish to emphasise that the only way to solve dengue problem is by preventing it,” she said.
Retired paediatrician Dr Amar-Singh HSS wrote in a column on CodeBlue that the rate of reported dengue in Selangor from January to July 20 this year was 628.9 per 100,000 population, the highest in the country, 2.8 times higher than the national rate of 222.8 per 100,000 population. In comparison, Labuan only recorded a dengue rate of 24.1 per 100,000 population, the lowest in Malaysia.
Reported dengue in Selangor marked an 89 per cent increase from the previous year.
Data cited by Free Malaysia Today showed that more than half of 62,421 dengue cases nationwide this year from January to June was recorded in Selangor, with 42,700 cases, including 36 deaths.
To date, RM3 million had been allocated in this year’s RM21 million state budget for dengue control, according to Dr Siti Mariah.
