‘In-house breeding source of dengue cases at KMC flats’
KUCHING: A dengue outbreak at the Sebuyau Block of KMC Flats, off Jalan Ban Hock here, has raised alarm among community leaders and the authorities.
Kuching divisional health inspector Amin Tamel said three dengue cases had been registered at the said block since early this month.
Speaking to journalists during an inspection yesterday, he said the authorities believed the current outbreak is caused by in-house breeding of Aedes mosquitoes.
“We suspect that the main source is in-house breeding because MBKS (Kuching South City Council) does cleaning outside and when we do inspections, not everybody is at home.
“We engage the community leaders today ( yesterday) to do door-to-door inspection, search and destroy (Aedes mosquitoes) and distribute pamphlets to residents,” he said while accompanied by Temenggong Tan Joo Phoi.
The event was initiated by the Village Security and Development Committee (JKKK) of KMC Flats Jalan Ban Hock Deshon, headed by Kapitan Desmond Thian.
According to Amin, they have covered some 70 per cent of the 56 doors at Sebuyau Block.
He pointed out that some residents at the block indiscriminately dispose of their rubbish, creating a breeding ground for Aedes mosquitoes. During the past inspections, he said health inspectors did find larvae inside some of the units.
“But I cannot give you the exact figure (of how many blocks have larvae) since not all of them (occupants) were around when we inspected the block.” Amin cautioned that the Sebuyau Block will be named a hotspot if the current outbreak is not brought under control by early next month.
“If there is no more new case by Nov 1, it will be declared free (of Aedes),” he added.
We suspect that the main source is in-house breeding because MBKS (Kuching South City Council) does cleaning outside and when we do inspections, not everybody is at home.
Earlier, Thian said his committee members had been conducting checks at KMC Flats, but some residents were unwilling to cooperate with them. He said community leaders were supposed to assist both MBKS and the divisional health office to do regular checks.
“The problem is that residents shut their doors on us when they did not see any authorised personnel with us. We want to help but in order to do this, we need collaboration from residents of KMC Flats,” he said.
Thian pointed out that it is the responsibility of residents to keep their living environment clean while other parties concerned could play their part to monitor.
“We are only coming in to help as we don’t stay there (KMC Flats). Aedes mosquitoes, if there are still any, will bite the residents and not us.”
Amin Tamel, Kuching divisional health inspector