KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 25 — Malaysia recorded a 74.4 per cent drop in dengue cases between January and September this year to 19,423 cases from 75,804 cases in the same period last year, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said.
Khairy said this in a written parliamentary reply on October 7 in response to Senator Koh Nai Kwong’s inquiry on drastic measures taken by the Ministry of Health (MOH) to reduce the number of dengue cases in the country. However, he did not specify the reasons for the decline.
To compare, Malaysia reported 83,849 dengue cases in 2017, which was about 17 per cent lower in comparison to figures in 2016.
To curb the resurgence of dengue cases in the country, Khairy said the MOH will continue to implement various prevention and control activities, including measures carried out by the National Dengue Task Force which involve eight ministries, departments and agencies.
Promotional activities, health education and campaigns on dengue were also carried out by state health departments and local governments, along with search and destroy activities to get rid of transmission sources in the form of mosquito breeding sites.
The MOH also utilises innovative dengue control measures by releasing Wolbachia mosquitoes in localities with high dengue loads from 2019.
The aim of releasing the Wolbachia mosquitoes is to replace wild Aedes mosquito populations carrying the dengue virus that will inhibit the virus’ transmission.
Khairy said after two years of implementing the Wolbachia mosquito release technique, MOH analysis showed that 15 out of 17 (88 per cent) Wolbachia mosquito release localities reported a reduction in dengue cases between 67 to 100 per cent.
