By Ida Nadirah Ibrahim
SHAH ALAM, June 15 — The Selangor government has set aside a RM5 million to combat the ongoing outbreak of dengue fever in the state, says Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud.
The state executive councillor for public health said that the state administration is undertaking a pilot initiative to use modern technologies to monitor dengue outbreak hotspots effectively.
“This will be accomplished through the use of drones and the development of hotspot localisation tracking software that could be publicly accessible,” she said in a statement in conjunction with the Asean Dengue Day 2022, today.
Dr Siti Mariah said that as of June 11, Selangor had recorded a cumulative number of 13,438 dengue fever cases, with the highest figure recorded in Klang with 2,257 cases, followed by Damansara (2,038), Kajang (1,338), Sungai Buloh (1,324) and Petaling (1,169).
She said that aside from state-level action and community-wide efforts, the Selangor Community Health Volunteers (Suka) will implement community-level programmes to raise awareness of the importance of preventive measures.
“Dengue fever is caused by an infection with the Aedes mosquito-borne virus. People can control dengue disease by raising awareness and changing their behaviour to prevent mosquito breeding and the spread of dengue outbreaks.
“In conjunction with Asean Dengue Day 2022, I urge everyone to promote dengue awareness and take preventive steps such as keeping the house and surrounding area clean, removing stagnant water containers that breed mosquitoes, wearing repellents, and disposing of garbage in bins,” she said.
