Malaysia: Dengue cases continue to soar, more than 7,000 cases this year

FAZLEENA AZIZ New Straits Times 25 Jan 16;

UTRAJAYA: Dengue cases are continuing to soar, with a total of 7,020 cases recorded nationwide from January 3 to 23.

The Health Ministry's iDengue website showed that Selangor still have the highest number of cases with 3,609. The website also indicates that Johor is not far behind with 1,137 cases.

This is followed by Kuala Lumpur (499), Penang (366), Perak (276) and Negri Sembilan (231) cases from Jan 3 to Jan 23. The only state that has remained off the dengue radar is Federal Territory Labuan while Putrajaya has 27 cases.

From Jan 3 to Jan 16, a total of 14 people have died of dengue. It was reported the scientific findings on the first dengue vaccine produced by French company, Sanofi, showed that it (vaccine) was only able to give effective protection to 47 per cent of dengue patients.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S Subramaniam said the ministry was still not convinced with the use of dengue vaccine based on the local data collected.

He said the vaccine is only useful for those aged between 9 to 18/19, and not useful for those younger than nine-years-old.