Sabah to vaccinate all kids against measles

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Health and People’s Wellbeing Ministry plans to get all children, including those who are stateless, vaccinated following a measles outbreak in the Philippines.

Its minister Datuk Stephen Wong said the virus was highly contagious and could cause death among small children.

“So far for Sabah, we have yet to see this virus spread but to prevent it, we need to get children vaccinated, especially the stateless,” he said during the launch of his ministry’s website here yesterday.

He said the mechanism to get stateless children vaccinated was still being worked out.

He said health officials had gone to the villages to explain the importance of getting their children vaccinated.

“As of this year, we have recorded two cases of measles, so there is no need to worry for now,” he said.

Wong also said there was a worrying increase in dengue cases with over 500 recorded this year.

“Sabah has the highest number of cases in the country and we are aggressively going to the ground to tackle the problem,” he said.

He said preventive measures, including fogging at high risk areas, were being conducted.

Wong urged the public to be proactive in keeping their surroundings clean and to rid their areas of mosquito breeding grounds.

Earlier at the event, he said the new Health and Wellbeing Ministry website – www.kkkr.sabah.gov.my was to enable better interaction between the public and health officials.