Malaysia’s Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad is reporting that between January and July of this year, a total of 72,356 dengue cases have been reported, drastically higher than the number from the same time frame last year.
While the total number of cases rose 89.5%, from 38,190 to this year’s figure, the number of fatalities has also risen, as one would expect, from 61 to 108.
Dzulfekly stated that the greatest surge in numbers began in May of this year, with the hardest hit state being Selangor, with 40,849 cases, followed by Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, with 8,794 confirmed infections, and then Johor, with just over 6,000 reported cases.
Our neighbor south of the Causeway has also seen a spike in cases this year.
The spike report comes amidst the Ministry’s effort to launch a new awareness program, in conjunction with ASEAN Dengue Day.
This year’s theme? “End Dengue: Starts With Me” a slogan that makes little grammatical sense, and doesn’t really rhyme.
After this year’s Visit Truly Asia Malaysia slogan, we’ve given up, but offer up our free editorial input, anytime, government agencies.
However, the minister was standing behind the theme, adding that it’s up to every one of us, as a community, to take responsibility for keeping our spaces as mosquito-unfriendly as possible.
Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. Symptoms will begin to appear three to fourteen days after being bitten.
Symptoms include, and are not limited to, a high fever, headache, vomiting, muscle and joint pains, and skin rashes. Your feet’s skin might also peel, but maybe that was just us.
While most individuals infected will recover within two to seven days, some individuals will develop severe dengue, also known as dengue hemorrhagic fever, resulting in bleeding, low levels of blood platelets and blood plasma leakage, or into dengue shock syndrome, where dangerously low blood pressure occurs, all of which could lead to death.
For the love of all things good, and bite-free – you can do your part in eliminating the breeding grounds for the Aedes type mosquitos that carry the disease, and ensure that you don’t leave standing water lying around.
