Suspected dengue patients shouldn’t be sent home: Liow

Star: PUTRAJAYA: Doctors are urged not to send suspected dengue patients home pending blood test results, but keep them under observation in hospitals.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, expressing concern over the management of dengue cases in hospitals, said he had received complaints that some suspected dengue patients were sent home while waiting for the test results, instead of being placed under observation.
"I see a number of cases where the dengue patient died in the hospital just after one, two or three days of being warded. I want them (doctors) to look into the cases of death, how to minimise death.
"Once you place them in the ward, it would be easy to monitor. Apart from that, the monitoring should be carried out more closely and efficiently, every four hours. Don't send the suspected dengue patient back," he told Bernama in an interview.
Liow said efforts would also be intensified to fight dengue as the ministry targeted to implement up to 1,000 Communication for Behavioural Impact (Combi) programmes nationwide to reduce dengue cases.
Combi is a programme designed and recommended by the World Health Organisation to reduce dengue cases, with participation of the community. "We will get the NGO (non-governmental organisations) help, send officers to monitor all the Combi (programmes) so that they can be efficient," he said.
Apart from Combi, the ministry has also implemented its five-year 'Nasional Strategic Plan' to control dengue since last April, for the 2009-2013 period.
The target of the strategic plan is to lower the number of cases by 10% annually, with a 50% reduction target, from 49,335 last year to 21,430 this year.
"The dengue problem is very serious because the number of cases is still considered high as the ministry has been encouraging more community participation in the dengue control programme," he said.
Liow reiterated that the fight against dengue was everyone's responsibility as fogging with insecticides alone, would not be able to control it.
For as long as there was Aedes breeding, new mosquitoes would emerge after fogging and spread the disease, he cautioned.