Materia Medica Malaysiana

Doc: Local authorities accountable, too

PUTRAJAYA: Should local authorities be penalised, as provided for under the law, if mosquito-breeding sites are found in public places under their purview?
As Health Ministry disease control director Dr Ramlee Rahmat sees it, nobody is above the law. But, he said, no local authority had been fined for the offence so far.
“However, there are schools and government hospitals which have been compounded for such offences,” he added when posed with the question at the ministry’s media briefing on dengue here yesterday.
According to the ministry's records, a 34-year-old male died at the Alor Gajah Hospital on Jan 14, bringing the death toll this year to two. The first death involved a six-year-old.
Dr Ramlee said 32 of the 36 local authorities recorded a rise in cases last week compared with the previous week.
Gombak topped the list with 203 cases last week compared with 134 the week before.
Shah Alam also saw a steep rise with 125 cases detected last week compared with 87 the previous week.