Local councils say guidelines followed

NST: Local councils today defended themselves against a Health Ministry allegation that their foggers were to blame for the rise in dengue cases and deaths.
Ampang Jaya Municipal Council spokesman Norhayati Ahmad said they had deployed four contractors to carry out fogging around their municipality and the foggers were under constant monitoring.
"Our health department is always checking on fogging activities and there is always someone from the department who follows them and takes reports," she said.
"The Health Ministry would probably be talking about the contractors who charge to carry out fogging. These people are usually not monitored," she added.
Subang Jaya Municipal Council public relations deputy director Azfarizal Abd Rashid said the council only hired private companies for fogging during dengue outbreaks.
"We usually have our health department staff on duty during an outbreak. Only when it is uncontrollable, like what has happened in the last few months, that we hire extra help.
"They (foggers), however, know that fogging will not be carried out without the presence of a monitoring officer," said Azfarizal.
"Our department’s staff are specialists in their field and they have no excuse to dilute or mix the chemicals wrongly or carry out fogging at unscheduled hours."
The New Straits Times reported yesterday that the ministry had found that contractors paid to carry out fogging nationwide had not done their job properly.
It was learnt that the contractors may have diluted the malathion/diesel mixture to the extent that aedes mosquitoes grew resistant to it.
The Petaling Jaya Municipal Council also claimed to follow the same guidelines.
"Thermal fogging that involves mixing of malathion and diesel is done by our health department staff who are trained to handle the work," said its health department director, Dr Sadiah Abdullah.
Until early last month, statistics showed a high incidence of dengue cases.
To date, 98 people have died of dengue fever and 10,036 have contracted the fever.