SHAH ALAM, 24 July: The ‘War Against Aedes’ campaign launched by the Ministry of Health (MOH) recently has shown on-going commitment in efforts to fight and prevent this disease from spreading.
Recent development on death related to dengue is very alarming, with 94 deaths reported across the country from January to July 16, when it recorded an increase of 236 percent compared to 28 deaths during the same period last year.
During that period, 49,948 dengue cases were recorded, an increase by 35,542 cases or 24 percent compared to 14,406 cases during the same period last year.
The ministry has also urged everyone to take the matter of the increase in dengue cases seriously as it is becoming increasingly alarming.
In a press statement, the Health Minister, Datuk Seri Dr S Subramaniam, said that the National Committee Meeting on Dengue 2014 chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, decided on some steps for this purpose on July 14.
“The following steps are to develop an integrated action plan that is more comprehensive involving various ministries and agencies, where the MOH will act as the secretariat. The implementation of the Integrated Action Plan focuses on the Klang Valley, especially in four districts in Selangor, namely Petaling, Hulu Langat, Gombak and Klang.
“This plan will also be implemented in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan and some parts in Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya,” he said.
Subramaniam said that the MOH will continue to play an important role to intensify and improve prevention activities, including controlling dengue, through the ‘War Against Aedes’ campaign.
Among the actions to be implemented in the Integrated Action Plan with various ministries and agencies is to strengthen reporting and how to diagnose dengue by distributing Dengue Clerking Sheets to private medical practitioners in the Klang Valley.
Other actions include expanding the use of combo kits to private clinics and mobilising dengue control teams from other districts to help dengue control activities in the Klang Valley where 77 control teams involving 265 members from other districts will be mobilised for the period of two months until this August.
“The implementation of this plan will be monitored closely to ensure that it is implemented effectively to reduce the number of dengue cases in the last two months,” he said.
NS
