Materia Medica Malaysiana

Government orders steps to control dengue

PUTRAJAYA: Concerned over the drastic increase in the number of dengue cases in the last three years, the government has directed all the relevant agencies to immediately take steps to control the situation and destroy all aedes breeding grounds.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak who issued the directive Friday said the government felt that the situation was serious enough to warrant immediate attention from all parties to prevent more deaths from dengue fever.

“There have been a serious increase in the number of dengue cases in the country since 2000 where 3,723 cases was reported. By last year, the number had jumped to 15,442 cases with 72 deaths, including 24 schoolchildren.

“This year, a total of 53 people died of dengue fever to date and 12 of them are schoolchildren. All parties, particularly the local governments, education departments and schools must work together to tackle this problem,” he told reporters after chairing the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Health and Cleanliness Thursday.

As a long-term effort to curb this problem, Najib said the local governments had been directed to ensure that the designs for all future projects in their areas must not have any potential mosquitoes breeding grounds like open gutters, tanks and sand-traps.

He said the local governments could work closely with the Malaysian Architects Association.