Dengue Updates: Firm blamed over Aedes breeding

NST: Aedes mosquitoes were breeding in the grounds of Seremban Hospital because the company awarded the cleaning contract did not do its job.
State Health, Science, Technology and Innovation Committee chairman Datuk Yu Chok Yow said Pantai Medicare Sdn Bhd was negligent in maintaining cleanliness there.
The hospital was fined when officials from the Health Department found mosquito-breeding grounds in several old tyres at the hospital guardhouse on June 2. The company paid the RM500 fine.
Yu said the hospital had set up its own team to look into the cleanliness of the institution and its grounds to ensure such incidents did not recur.
Besides the Seremban Hospital, five other hospitals and five schools were fined this year for breeding Aedes mosquitoes.
Yu said 1,018 dengue cases had been registered in the State up to this week, with 10 to 15 cases referred to the Seremban Hospital daily.

Health Ministry: Shame on errant hospitals
That’s the verdict by Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad on the six hospitals slapped with compound notices by the ministry for allowing Aedes mosquitoes to breed in their compounds.
"They should be ashamed of themselves. A hospital should be a place of comfort, a place to cure, not a breeding ground for disease," he said.
"I have been told the hospitals have appointed certain companies to ensure their premises are clean. It is obvious they have not done their job well."
Dr Latiff said the action against the hospitals should serve as a reminder to others on the importance of maintaining cleanliness, especially at government facilities.
The most effective weapons in combating dengue were education and awareness, he said after the Unity College graduation ceremony at a hotel here this evening.
On another matter, Dr Latiff said he had yet to receive a report on claims by the wife of a driving instructor that a delay by a private hospital in Shah Alam in administering treatment cost the life of her husband who died of a heart attack.
"The usual practice in emergency cases is to get the patient treated. Whether the hospital admits the patient is another matter."
The deputy minister said the ministry did not have the power to penalise the hospital over the case.