Over 1,100 dengue cases reported in Selangor in just five days

According to data from the Health Ministry, there had been almost 1,900 dengue cases in the country in just the span of five days.

From 29 December 2019 to 2 January 2020, over 1,000 dengue cases were reported in Selangor, making it the state with the highest number of dengue cases.

Meanwhile, its neighbouring area, Kuala Lumpur has 131 dengue cases recorded within the same period. This indicate that there was still a high number of citizens in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur that are taking the potential dengue outbreak for granted, despite being an urban area filled with media information.

Whereas, other states have less than 200 dengue cases recorded within the five-day time frame.  The next state with the highest cases of dengue after Selangor is Johor which has 152. However, a huge gap was seen between Selangor and Johor, with the difference of over than 900 cases.

The previous dengue outbreak in Malaysia occurred in 2014.

A drastic increase of over 65,000 dengue cases were seen in 2014 compared to the year before.

The situation got worse in 2015 with more than 120,000 cases. It was the year with the highest number of dengue cases since 2000. Plus, 2015 had the highest number of dengue related deaths, reaching almost 350 victims.

However, the situation improved in the following years, from 2015 to 2018. The number of dengue cases and deaths from the disease was gradually reduced each year.

Nevertheless, the number remains high compared to the years prior to the outbreak in 2014.

Therefore, it is important to keep our environment clean. This precautionary exercise will endure our surroundings to not be the breeding grounds of Aedes mosquitoes.