Saturday, June 15, 2013

Health Ministry: Adenovirus outbreak under control

The Star Online


    BUKIT MERTAJAM: The Health Mi­­nistry says that the viral outbreak in the National Service Training Pro­gramme (PLKN) camp here is under control.
    Deputy Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahya said initial laboratory tests showed that it was adenovirus (illness of the respiratory system).
    “It is not serious. All 48 students from this camp (Machang Bubok), who were earlier admitted to the Bukit Mertajam Hospital after coming down with influenza-like symptoms have since been discharged. “They have been advised not to have close contact activities and to maintain good personal hygiene as well as to cover their mouths when coughing,” he said in an interview yesterday.
    Dr Hilmi said that the students concerned have been advised to be isolated at home until they got better.
    He said that the ministry had formed a task force comprising doctors from the Penang Hospital, camp wardens and public health officers to closely monitor the situation.
    “The situation is under control and there is nothing to worry about,” he said. In March 2011, three police trainees from the Kuala Lumpur police training college (Pulapol) in Jalan Semarak, Kuala Lumpur succumbed to adenovirus infection after they were admitted to the Kuala Lumpur (KL) Hospital’s intensive care unit.
    They were trainee inspector Mohd Redzuan Ishak, 26, and trainee constables Mohd Azizan Azirid, 25, and Mohammad Siman, 23.
    Some 35 trainees were treated at the KL Hospital, while another six were treated in the Sungai Buloh Hospital after they were found to have contracted the virus.

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