Exco lashes out at local authorities for not doing enough to fight dengue

JOHOR BARU: State Health and Environment Executive Committee Chairman Datuk Ayub Rahmat said local authorities should step up their fight against the dengue epidemic.
He said the local authorities should work to ensure that there are no repeated cases of dengue fever in a particular area.
Citing the case of Taman Tampoi Indah, he said it was a "black area" with seven cases reported in the space of two to three weeks last year, while Tanjung Kupang had three cases in 2014.
Ayub said district and town councils should ensure mosquito breeding sites are cleaned up, as it was their responsibility to do so.
He said, the state government will launch a cleaning campaign on March 8 in Muar, and each local authority should allocate RM100,000 to take part in this cleaning programme.
Ayub was speaking to the media after attending the appreciation ceremony of the Johor Health Department here today.
Last year, Johor recorded 6,324 cases of dengue with 24 deaths, the fifth highest state with dengue cases, behind Selangor, Kelantan, Wilayah Persekutuan and Perak.
Johor recorded a 30% increase in dengue cases last year compared with 4,828 cases in 2013.
In 2014, of the 626,732 premises checked, 18,689 was found to be breeding ground for mosquitoes, 1,295 were given notices to clean up, 4,578 were compounded, with the compound amounting to RM2.2 million.