Malaysia: Dengue fever cases still high in Selangor

The Star 13 Feb 16;

KLANG: Reported cases of dengue fever in Selangor are still high and there is no indication that the numbers will be decreasing soon.

Selangor Health Department Vector Department deputy director Dr Sharifah Malihah Wan Mustapha said infection trend in the state could be considered high as well.

She said Selangor has a very high number of cases because of various factors that were not present in other states, including high density population and rapid movement of people in and out of the state.

“There is also a lot of development here, and because of this the infection rate is on the high side.”

She said the major factor that contributed towards the infection rate in Selangor was the amount of garbage strewn all over the place, providing breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

Dr Sharifah Malihah said there were 7,239 reported dengue cases in Selangor in January and 2,355 cases from the 1st to the 11th of this month.

Selangor Health director Datuk Dr S. Balachandran urged the public to help ensure that the environment was kept clean to curb the Aedes mosquito from breeding.