Selangor medical officers told to take measures to control dengue outbreak

Star: SHAH ALAM: Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai has taken the Selangor Health Department to task for failing to take effective measures which led to the outbreak of 68 dengue fever cases at eight apartment blocks here over the last 100 days.
Among the 68 victims living off Jalan Plumbum in Section 7, 70% were students age 17 to 35 from the Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM).
Liow told department director Dr Rosnah Hadis and Petaling medical officer Dr Ismail Samad that effective and proactive measures should have been taken to contain the disease within the two weeks.
“With immediate effect, all measures must be taken if there are more than two cases and within two weeks, the health department and local councils must overcome the problem,” he said. Liow added that there were 48 hot spots in Selangor which are concentrated in the urban areas.
“Even friends of mine are coming down with dengue fever. Our Selangor MCA state liaison committee deputy chairman Datuk Liew Yuen Keong was struck with the disease two weeks ago,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dr Rosnah blamed the dengue outbreak at the Section 7 apartments to the higher rainfall and public apathy that encouraged the breeding of the Aedes mosquitoes.
She added that officers from the department were not able to contain the situation as most of the breeding grounds were actually inside the apartments, especially bath tubs filled with water for weeks while the tenants returned to their home towns for holidays.
Selangor Health Committee chairman Dr A. Xavier Jayakumar called on the residents to cooperate with health officers during fogging operations.
“Residents must allow our men to fog their homes. We are using water-based chemicals for fogging, so it will not leave an oily residue.”