Start ‘lifting a finger’ to fight dengue — Sibu Resident

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Hii Chang Kee

Hii Chang Kee

SIBU: Members of the public have been told to go on the offensive to search and destroy Aedes mosquito breeding grounds to reduce dengue cases here.

Sibu Resident Hii Chang Kee, who heads the divisional-level dengue taskforce, urged the public to spend 10 minutes a week to scout around their surroundings covering a distance of 50 metres to check for pest habitat.

Hii added that working in concert with the authorities was the way forward in the fight against dengue. Main breeding places are discarded used tyres, plastic and polystyrene containers, cans, water storage tanks and containers, drums, pails, and discriminately thrown rubbish that contained clear water.

“I think if everyone can do this once a week, we can easily reduce the breeding grounds, which is most important. Conversely, if we don’t cooperate, we will miss some of the breeding grounds and it will become an outbreak if there are a lot of cases,” he told The Borneo Post when asked the measures taken to curb the spread of dengue in the high density area of Zone 7 here.

He said this when met at the Korean traditional cooking demonstration at the Borneo Cultural Festival (BCF) 2016 here recently.

According to the recent statistics from state Health Department, a total of 1,409 dengue cases were reported in Sarawak from Jan 1 to June 25 this year.

The highest number of cases were reported from Sibu District with 746 cases or 53 per cent of the total reported cases in the state, followed by Kuching (180) and Kapit (135).

Hii said they would continue to carry out awareness reminders on dengue prevention. He pointed out that authorities such as council would go for ‘source reduction’ covering places such as drains, open space and public places, where rubbish and containers – prone to accumulating water which can become Aedes breeding ground.

“But I think people should also do their part and not leave everything to the authorities.” Adding on, he said the council and Medical Department

will continue to monitor, especially fogging. Hii pointed out that this could either be preventive fogging or if there were cases, regular fogging will be done.

“I think most important is cooperation from the people and if everybody cooperates then, there is no source, and this will help to contain the spread of the disease,” he said, adding that authorities needed to beef up enforcement while calling for public cooperation to be further strengthened.