KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 1 – The spread of dengue fever can be controlled if all parties including local residents are united in combating the menace, says Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam. He said even though earlier government efforts such as ‘Mega Operations’ succeeded in reducing dengue cases, the programme did not last.
However, various integrated efforts implemented, such as the COMBI team, gotong royong, tougher enforcement as well as new preventive measures on outdoor residual spraying technics to control Aedes mosquitoes, showed a drop in dengue cases since the middle of February 2015.
“The total number of dengue cases had dropped to between 1,500 to 1,800 cases a week. The involvement of the various ministries and agencies is important to eradicate dengue and it has been proven to be effective with integrated efforts implemented,” he said in a written reply distributed at Dewan Rakyat Monday.
“This has shown dengue can be controlled, considering dengue fever is influenced by various factors such as urbanisation, population density, human movements, change in weather and changes to dengue virus serotype,” he said when replying to a question by Ahmad Baihaki Atiqullah (PAS-Kubang Kerian).
Nonetheless, Dr Subramaniam said the main challenge was to maintain the continuous efforts of various parties to prevent dengue. He said even though dengue cases have shown a drop now, the momentum of the mechanism or preventive strategy has to continue to reduce the number of dengue cases. He said from January to October 5, 2015, there were 92,102 cases recorded with 257 deaths compared with 43,346 cases with 92 deaths in 2013 as well as 108,698 cases with 215 deaths in 2014.
