Local authorities directed to deal with Aedes issue

PUTRAJAYA: Local authorities should carry out activities to destroy Aedes mosquito breeding grounds especially in abandoned housing projects, vacant land or lots and rubbish disposal sites, says Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah (pix).
He said monitoring by the Health Ministry found 21.8% of abandoned housing projects, 8.5% of vacant land or lots, 8% of waste disposal sites and 5.1% of recreational parks in dengue outbreak localities, breed Aedes mosquitoes.
"Parties managing cemeteries or places of worship as well as resident associations should clean cemeteries and places of worship as they contributed to 6.8% and 4.5% of Aedes mosquito breeding grounds.
"The industries are also told to ensure the surroundings in their premises are clean as 4% of factories were found positive for Aedes mosquito breeding," he said in a statement, here today.
Besides, he said district health offices were also required to intensify prevention activities in high-risk areas when the Aedes index was found to be exceeding the standard reading of 1% to control any increase in dengue cases.
"In the current rainy and hot weather in the country now, the people should be careful in ensuring that no water holding receptacles in and outside of the house became Aedes breeding places," he said.
According to him, in week 29 this year, from July 17 to 23, there were 2,188 cases of dengue reported, a drop of 52 cases (2.3%) compared to the previous week with 2,240 cases.
However, he said there were six states which showed an increase in the number of cases, namely Kelantan 50 cases, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya (39), Negeri Sembilan (three) as well as Terengganu, Sabah and Labuan with one case each.
According to him, from January to July 23 this year, cumulative dengue cases reported were 63,722 cases compared with 67,944 cases for the same period last year, a fall of 6.2% (4,222 cases).
Dr Noor Hisham said for the same period, the cumulative number of dengue fatalities were 142 cases compared to 185 deaths for the same period in 2015, a drop of 43 deaths (23.2%).

On the latest Zika situation, he said based on data furnished by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on July 20, 65 countries had reported Zika virus infection.
"In Malaysia, no Zika virus infection was reported so far based on 651 samples tested by the National Public Health Laboratory (MKAK) and the Institute of Medical Research (IMR)," he said.
Apart from that, he said screening of visitors at international entry points would continue and so far no visitors were suspected of Zika virus infection.— Bernama