Malaysia: Rain, hot weather causing spike in dengue cases

New Straits Times 2 Jul 14;

KUALA LUMPUR: The rainy weather interchanging with the hot season is one factor for the high number of dengue cases recorded between January and last month.

A Health Ministry official said the rainy season had created a more conducive breeding ground for mosquitoes while the hot weather had made the mosquitoes more active.

“The wet weather enables the mosquito egg to turn into larva, a pupa and later into an adult mosquito, or imago.

“Therefore, it is important to reduce breeding sources and create a clean environment so that the breeding process does not continue.”

Fogging is not sufficient as it only kills adult mosquitoes, and no vaccine has been developed yet.

“We have intensified our control measures but it should be an integrated effort by all quarters to ensure that there are no more dengue deaths.”

The official said compounds had been issued to people in charge of premises and sites that were not clean and which promoted mosquito breeding.

Health Ministry director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah on Monday said the ministry was investigating the possibility of the rise of dengue cases to be due to the shift in the dominant dengue virus serotype that was circulating.

“We will investigate the possibility of a new strain of dengue virus from the four serotypes always in circulation (DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3, and DEN-4).

“The spike in dengue cases may be attributed to the new strain, but we will have to find out.”

Checks with private hospitals showed that the number of admissions for dengue had increased, with one private hospital in the Klang Valley saying the increase had forced it to turn away many patients.

Spike in dengue-related cases and deaths in Johor
The Star 3 Jul 14;

JOHOR BARU: Johor has recorded 15 dengue-related deaths in the first six months of this year, an increase of 144% compared with the same pe­­riod last year.

The number of dengue cases also increased by 52% from 1,660 in the first six months of last year to 2,524 for the same period this year.

State health and environment com­­­mittee chairman Datuk Ayub Rahmat described the trend as worrying as the death toll had more than doubled, adding the Health Depart­ment had been constantly carrying out fogging and clean-up across the state.

However, he said residents should not rely solely on fogging activities but take precautionary measures to rid mosquito breeding grounds.

“Fogging is the last resort to kill adult Aedes and some of them are already immune to the pesticide. Prevention is most vital to eliminate dengue cases,” he said while propo­sing that homeowners spend at least 10 minutes a week to check for possible breeding grounds around their areas.

On the usage of biological agent Bacillus Thuringiensis Israelensis (BTI) as the pesticide mixture for fogging, Ayub said that the Govern­ment was still conducting studies to check on its effectiveness.