Perak State Government outrageously insensitive, inefficient and
irresponsible in the anti-dengue campaign as it is still talking about
establishing a state-wide anti-aedes panel before Chinese New Year when the
death toll keeps mounting with another death from Manjoi, Ipoh - the third
in the first two weeks of the new year
Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang
(Petaling Jaya,
Friday):
The Perak State Government is outrageously insensitive, inefficient and
irresponsible in the anti-dengue campaign as it is still talking about
establishing a state-wide anti-aedes panel before Chinese New Year when the
death toll keeps mounting with another death from Manjoi, Ipoh - the third
in the first two weeks of the new year.
Mohamed Fazil Mohd Ismail, 10, Std. IV pupil of Sekolah Kebangsaan Manjoi,
died of dengue at Ipoh Hospital on Wednesday - a week after his admission.
His father, Mohd Ismail Mohd Shariff, 33, said his son was first sent to a
private clinic when he developed high fever on Jan. 4 and the doctor
suspected that he was suffering from dengue.
He took Mohamed Fazil to the Government clinic in Kampung Manjoi where he
was told that his son only had high fever. On Jan. 7, he took the boy to the
Ipoh General Hospital after he almost collapsed at school. (New Straits
Times)
The third dengue death in the Ipoh General Hospital - after Nurul Shazlyn Ab.
Fairul Hisman, 2, of Kampung Ahmad Said Tambahan, Ipoh, who died on 3.1.03
and Adam Danial Zarisham, 2, of Kampong Manjoi, Ipoh who died on 7.1.2003 -
has confirmed three matters which I had tried to impress on the Health
Minister, Datuk Chua Jui Meng and the local authorities in my lonely but so
far unsuccessful campaign on the unrecognized dengue epidemic , viz:
-
That Malaysia is facing the worst dengue epidemic which claimed more than
72 lives last year and at least five deaths in the first two weeks of the
new year (more serious than the worst dengue year previously in 1998; which
reported 27,379 cases and 58 deaths) and the worst is not over;
-
That the government should declare a dengue epidemic and a high-impact IEC
or information, education and communication (including media) campaign to
create nation-wide alert and awareness of the epidemic as even private
practitioners and government doctors are not all sufficiently aware of the
dengue epidemic;
-
That urban Malay children are the most vulnerable population group in the
epidemic, from the incidence of cases and casualties.
The Perak State Exco member responsible for health, science, technology and
environment, Datuk Ho Cheng Wang, is only now talking about setting up a
special state panel against aedes mosquitoes before the Chinese New Year in
two weeks' time (Berita Harian 16.1.03) when the dengue death toll keeps
mounting after months of the dengue epidemic in Ipoh and Perak.
DAP MP for Batu Gajah, Fong Poh Kuan has informed me that for the first two
weeks of the month, there were more than 150 dengue cases in the Ipoh
General Hospital, averaging more than 10 admissions a day. This has been
going on for the past three months, applying only to the Ipoh General
Hospital, not taking into account the private Ipoh hospital admissions or
admissions to hospitals in other parts of Perak state.
The gravity of the dengue epidemic could be gauged from a comparison with
the daily average of six dengue cases for the whole of Perak state (all
public and private hospitals) for the first seven months of last year as
compared to more than 10 dengue admissions to the Ipoh General Hospital
alone for the first two weeks of the year.
The third dengue death from Manjoi, Ipoh this year is a sad reflection of
the collective failure of the Health Ministry, Perak State Government and
the Ipoh Municipality to fight the dengue menace in Manjoi, Perak's largest
Malay populated settlement comprising five planned villages with over 31,000
residents.
How could the authorities allow the death toll in Manjoi to continue to
climb when they should have known from last year's dengue data that it is a
"black area" for dengue and a special operation should have been launched to
make it dengue-free.
DAP is convening a roundtable conference of all political
parties/professional groups/civic organizations/NGOs/mass media at the
Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall, Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, 22nd January 2003
at 11 a.m. on the dengue epidemic to prevent more avoidable deaths
particularly among urban Malay children.
Invitations have been sent out to all political parties, ruling and
opposition, and their youth and women wings; professional groups like the
Malaysian Medical Association, the Bar Council; trade unions and consumer
organisations like the MTUC, CUEPACS, NUTP, FOMCA, PCA, CAP, ERA, Aliran and
the state-level consumer bodies; civic organizations, youth organizations
and NGOs like ABIM, HAKAM, SUARAM, etc and the editors of all printed,
electronic and Internet publications including Malaysiakini and Agendadaily.
Malaysians who are interested to attend the roundtable conference can
contact the convenor of the roundtable conference on the dengue epidemic,
Dr. Tan Seng Giaw, DAP National Vice Chairman and MP for Kepong or the
conference secretariat: John Chung 016-3148370 or Anthony Loke 016-6686165,
03-79578127.
(17/1/2003)
*
Lim Kit Siang, DAP National
Chairman
|
http://dapmalaysia.org