Government figures have shown that the number of measles cases in the country has risen by a whopping 340 percent — from 197 cases to 873 — from last year.
The New Straits Times’ Fazleena Aziz reports that 66 measles outbreaks were recorded in the first week of June this year, which was up four to five cases from the same period last year.
Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah was quoted as saying that in 2014, there were only 11 reported measles outbreaks nationwide, and that number rose to 57 the following year.
“In 2015, there were 1,318 cases with two deaths recorded but no deaths have been recorded so far this year. As for chicken pox, there were 10 outbreak episodes recorded compared to 12 episodes in the same period in 2015 and nine in 2014. The majority of the chickenpox episodes this year involve those at institutions (9 episodes) including nurseries, kindergartens, day care centers and detention centers,” he was quoted as saying.
Medical experts have reportedly blamed the anti-vaccine movement for the reappearance of diphteria, which had “virtually disappeared in Malaysia”, and other vaccine-preventable diseases in the country.
