Dengue deaths up 50% to 95 – DG

KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 95 deaths were recorded between January and March 18 nationwide, as a result of dengue fever, says Health Department director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said the number showed an increase of 90 per cent as compared to 50 deaths recorded in the same period last year.

Selangor recorded the highest number of deaths at 50.

In a statement yesterday, Dr Noor Hisham said during the same period, 30,033 cases of dengue fever were reported, compared to 21,111 cases in the same period last year.

However, he said there was a downward trend in the number of cases reported since four weeks ago.

“Based on the health ministry’s monitoring in the 10th week, namely, from March 8 to 14, a total of 2,275 cases of dengue fever were reported compared to 2,643 cases the previous week,” he added.

In the meantime, Noor Hisham said Selangor recorded the highest number of areas where the plague was still active at 214, followed by Perak (38), Sabah (six) and Penang (one).

Seeing the dengue fever cases and deaths from dengue fever were still high, the ministry has urged the public to seek immediate treatment at the nearest clinics if they had fever, bodily aches, headache, vomiting, nausea and bleeding gums.

“Medical practitioners at private hospitals and clinics are urged to carry out blood tests to confirm suspected dengue cases,” said Noor Hisham, adding that to date, two companies had offered Combo Rapid Test Kit to detect dengue fever at low price to private medical practitioners.