Materia Medica Malaysiana

Chua raps NGOs over dengue alert

Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek has hit back at those who suggest that his ministry should have issued a dengue alert earlier.
"Non-governmental organisations should think of ways to combat the disease rather than question whether the Government had issued the warning too early or too late.
"The outbreak started on the 47th week of last year. Usually when the number of cases go up within three or four weeks, we would issue a warning. If we issue an unjustified warning, we would be accused of crying wolf," he said.
He added that the ministry had to study the disease's trend to determine whether an outbreak was inevitable as it could not risk raising a "false alarm".
He said people should stop blaming the ministry for the way it handled the dengue outbreak and concentrate instead on eradicating the disease.
"All quarters should buck up, from the health officials to the people themselves.
"The people are equally to be blamed. If they throw rubbish around their compound, they can't expect health officials or the local authority to keep picking it up," Dr Chua said.
He was responding to comments by the Centre for Environment, Technology and Development Malaysia and the Residents Action Committee for Taman Nirwana, Ampang, which on Friday called on the Government to be transparent and pro-active in the fight against dengue.