Homemaker Succumbs to Dengue

News article taken from: Bernama, Sunday, June 17, 2012

A 66-year-old woman in Perak became the latest dengue casualty last week.

Health director-general Datuk Seri Dr Hassan Abdul Rahman said with the housewife’s case, the death toll reached 21 last Wednesday, an increase of seven compared to 14 fatalities during the same period last year.

“The victim was admitted to hospital with fever, joint pains, vomiting and purging. She died of haemorrhagic dengue fever.

“An inspection of her house compound revealed Aedes mosquitoes breeding in plastic food containers,” he said in a statement here yesterday.

The neighbours carried out a gotong-royong to destroy the breeding site two days after her death, he added.

There were 10,706 dengue cases between January and June 9 this year, an increase of 18% or 1,627 cases compared to the same period last year.

Dr Hassan said 72 locations throughout the country were experiencing an epidemic but no hotspots had been reported yet.

“Gotong-royong needs to be stepped up to destroy breeding grounds, particularly in Selangor which has the highest number of epidemic locations,” he said.

Dr Hasan also said that the Health Ministry and Remote Sensing Agency Malaysia signed a collaboration note on Monday to enhance the quality of dengue epidemic monitoring and controlling by developing a dengue epidemic management system. — Bernama