SIBU: Sibu District registered the highest number of dengue cases as at May 23 this year, with 566 cases. State health director Datu Dr Zulkifli Jantan said Kuching was second with 188 cases and Kapit 124 cases.
Dr Zulkifli made a fresh call to the public to step up precautions against the spread of dengue fever, including spending at least 10 minutes every week to search and destroy Aedes mosquitoes’ breeding grounds.
“There is no active (dengue) hotspot in Sarawak at the moment, but members of the public are advised not to rest on their laurels but to go all out to eradicate the menace,” Dr Zulkifli told The Borneo Post.
On the definition of hotspots, he said this referred to any localities reported with dengue outbreak for more than 30 days. He said there were four fatalities in the state due to dengue fever thus far this year.
Dr Zulkifli said 46,168 premises in the state had been inspected for Aedes breeding grounds since January this year. From this inspection, 1,274 premises were found to be positive.
On fogging activities, he said this had been carried out on 88,846 premises across the state. He also mentioned that 174 compounds were issued amounting to RM87,000. Towards this end, he said rural areas accounted for 27 per cent of the total dengue cases reported in the state thus far this year, and the remainder were in town areas.
Meanwhile, Sibu Resident Hii Chang Kee, who heads the divisional-level dengue taskforce, said they had regular meetings to tackle dengue issues here. Hii added that at district level, there was a dengue control committee.