Dengue deaths down to 55

There were 55 reported deaths from dengue fever in the first 34 weeks of this year.
This is slightly lower than the 61 deaths reported in the corresponding period last year.
Health Ministry Communicable Diseases Control Division director Dr Ramlee Rahmat said the drop indicated that dengue was under control.
"The dengue situation is very much under control as compared to that during the dengue epidemic early this year."
He said although the dengue outbreak was contained over the past five months, all State health departments were still on alert as dengue fever was endemic in Malaysia.
"Now with Singapore reporting eight deaths this year and 493 new dengue cases in the week ending Aug 28, the Johor health department is on high alert," he said.
This is because some 200,000 Malaysians are working in Singapore with the majority of them staying in Johor.
Seven people were reported to have died of dengue fever in Singapore this year, and the number of new cases hit a high last week despite Government efforts to clear mosquito breeding grounds.
The weekly bulletin on infectious diseases by Singapore’s Health Ministry showed 493 new dengue cases reported in the week ending Aug 28, up nearly a fifth from the previous week’s record high of 414.
The Singapore Government had said that there had been 8,308 dengue fever cases since the start of the year, nearly double the number infected in the same period last year when the number of cases on the island rocketed to a 10-year high.
As for the situation in Malaysia, there were 24,857 dengue cases notified to the Health Ministry between Jan 1 and Aug 27 as compared to 23,613 cases during the same period last year.
As for confirmed dengue cases, Dr Ramlee said there were only 6,807 so far this year compared with 8,291 last year.
Dengue is carried by the aedes aegypti mosquito. The virus can cause fever, severe headache, joint and muscular pains, vomiting and rashes.
Asked if Johor recorded any increase in dengue cases, Dr Ramlee said there was a slight increase of 74 cases recorded between Aug 14 and 20 compared with 67 cases between Aug 21 and 27.
Source