Dengue Fever Still Significant Public Health Issue In Malaysia

The total number of Dengue Fever cases in Malaysia increased drastically from 21,900 in year 2012 to 120,836 in year 2015. In 2016 the total number of cases was 101,357 compared with 79,023 cases till week 47/2017. There was a significant drop in number of Dengue Fever cases with death down by almost 1/3. In fact is it really to be happy with the achievement so far?

For your information WHO global strategy for dengue prevention and control 2012- 2020 is to reduce dengue mortality by at least 50% and dengue morbidity by at least 25% by 2020 with the year 2010 used as baseline. So where are we Malaysia in dengue prevention and control if we adopt WHO global strategy?

Ministry of Health Malaysia had been tried their best in dengue controlling by fogging in hotspot area, dengue campaign and education to public, mass cleaning process, neighbourhood inspection and compound if mosquito larvae found in water stagnant at housing area even in commercial , office and construction site or school.

With all the effective controlling measures from government Dengue Fever still prevalence in Malaysia. Therefore is it something wrong in somewhere?

Everyone should plays their role in dengue prevention and control. Malaysian should has self-awareness in cleaning and keeping our environment safe and clean. Every day you can see people littering, a very good example is our night market (pasar malam). At the end of night market Malaysian “convenient” mentality will be well shown. Public littering food leftover, food wrapper etc. and some hawkers simply pour the remaining food or sauce into drain causing blockage. All these are the perfect environment for Mosquito breeding site especially now the Monsoon season and post flooding in some areas.

In conjunction with recent hot topic Dengue vaccine could make the disease worse in people who had not previously been infected with the virus, the most effective way is creating a safe and clean environment and destroying mosquito breeding site. Without mosquito to serve as vector for dengue transmission how are we supposed to get infected with Dengue Fever? It is just as simple as that and let’s create together a safer environment and dengue free era for our future generation.