MALAYSIA – Ten minutes a week – that’s enough time to spruce up one’s surroundings
to prevent the dengue menace from spreading. Health Director-General Datuk Seri
Dr Hasan Abdul Rahman lamented that while the people are “very aware” of the
dangers posed by Aedes mosquitoes, they do not regularly clean up their homes
and surrounding areas to ensure it does not become dengue breeding grounds.
“The public do not practise
dengue eradication techniques regularly. They think it won’t happen to them.
This attitude needs to change,” he said after presenting prizes to schools at
the Inter School Anti-Aedes Rangers prize-giving ceremony, yesterday.
Sponsored by SC Johnson, the
competition on dengue prevention involved more than 2,000 students from 100
schools in Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Selangor, Johor and Penang who visited
homes to educate owners on effective prevention methods to eradicate Aedes
mosquitoes.
SMK Bakri in Kajang won the grand
prize for visiting 16,337 homes. The team won a cash prize worth RM10,000, a
trophy and hamper.
Dr. Hasan said cleaning up the
surroundings could not be a one-off occurence, but a continuous effort as Aedes
mosquitoes only a week to fully mature.
“By cleaning up our homes and
surroundings once a week, we will be able to break the life cycle of the mosquito,”
he said.
He said dengue cases had gone up
by 13% for the first seven months of this year. From January to July 14 this
year, there were 12,518 cases as opposed to the 11,124 during the same period
last year. At the same time, 25 deaths were recorded, an increase of six cases
as compared to last year’s 19.
Selangor recorded the highest
number, with 5,713 cases and 11 deaths, followed by the Federal Territories
(1,186 cases and three deaths), Johor (901 cases and one death) and Perak (871
cases and three deaths).
Dr. Hasan said the ministry
inspected 1.7 million premises for the first six months of this year, of which
19,721 or 1.16% were found to be Aedes breeding grounds.
He said from January to May this
year, the ministry compounded 8,703 premises found to be degue breeding grounds
and collected RM3.8 million worth of compound fines.
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