DAP lawyers led by DAP Deputy Chairman
Karpal Singh offer free legal assistance to families of at least 74 dengue
fatalities last year and at least five dengue deaths in the first two weeks
of the new year to sue the Health Ministry, the Local and Government
Ministry, the state governments and the local authorities for accountability
and responsibility
Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang
(Penang, Saturday):
It is a public scandal of the first magnitude that for the past year, the
Health Minister, Datuk Chua Jui Meng had refused to release real-time
important information and indicators about the dengue outbreak in Malaysia,
such as weekly or even daily incidence data, case-fatality rates (CFR) for
dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF), frequency and distribution of dengue and DHF
cases by age, gender, ethnicity and location; number of deaths, and
distribution of circulating dengue virus serotypes resulting in the country
suffering the worst dengue epidemic in the nation's history.
The dengue epidemic last year was worse than the epidemic in 1998, the worst
year on record which reported 27,379 cases and 58 deaths.
What is most alarming, Malaysia is still at the epicenter of the worst
dengue epidemic in the nation's history, as reflected by at least five
dengue fatalities in the first 14 days of the new year - all urban Malay
children - and the high incidence of dengue cases, with an average of over
10 dengue admissions a day for the Ipoh General Hospital in the new year and
the fact that M. Davendran, 48, the Pahang MIC State Asemblyman for Sabai
(which covers Karak in Bentong), could contract dengue while visiting
several villages in his constituency, resulting in dangerously high fever
and his hospitalization in Kuantan.
Davenderan blamed the local authorities for indifference and inaction in
eradicating the "obvious breeding grounds for Aedes" in his constituency,
but the Yang Dipertua of the Bentong district council, Abdul Raffar Abdul
Rahman denied responsibility, stating that Devendran must have been bitten
by an aedes mosquito outside the Bentong district council area as there had
only been four reported cases of dengue in the Bentong district. (Berita
Harian)
Up to now, Chua has refused to disclose the number of dengue cases and
deaths both countrywide and state-by-state for the whole of last year,
although he never challenged me for giving false figures or creating
baseless alarm when for the past month, I had been trying to track the
incidence of dengue cases and fatalities, estimating at least 60 deaths last
year in a media statement early this month rising to at least 72 deaths for
last year in my media statement three days ago. This is because if I erred
(and I openly admit that I do not have the full facts and figures of dengue
cases and deaths), it was on the low side as the actual number of dengue
cases and deaths would be very much higher.
I must now revise my partial estimate of the number of dengue deaths in
Malaysia last year upwards from at least 72 to at least 74 fatalities, as
the Perak State Health, Science, Technology and Environment Committee
Chairman, Datuk Ho Cheng Wang, said yesterday that there had been a total of
12 dengue deaths and 3,280 dengue cases in Perak last year as compared to
five deaths and 1,401 cases reported in 2,001 - when the total of 10 deaths
and 2,812 cases in Perak had been the official position until the middle of
last month.
This means there had been an increase of two dengue deaths and 468 dengue
cases in Perak in the last two weeks of last year. Inadvertently, Ho had
highlighted the continuing gravity of the dengue epidemic in Perak, as 468
dengue cases in the state in the last two weeks of last year out of 3,280
cases for the year would mean that 13% of the dengue cases reported in Perak
last year occurred in 4 per cent in the final period of the 52 weeks of last
year!
There are in fact reasons to question whether the figures given by Ho
represent the full total of the incidence of dengue cases and deaths in
Perak last year. DAP calls for an independent commission to conduct a full
inquiry to find out the true extent of the dengue epidemic, both with regard
to the incidence in the number of cases and deaths in Perak as well in all
the states in the country.
Malaysia is faced with a great tragedy that the World Health Organisation
warning in July last year of a possible dengue pandemic in the region was
not given proper attention by the various authorities, resulting in the
worst dengue epidemic in the nation's history, with at least over 74 deaths
last year and at least five deaths in the first two weeks of the new year.
DAP calls on the Health Minister to stop withholding vital "life-and-death"
information from the Malaysian public, who have the right to know the truth
about the ravages caused and still being caused by the dengue epidemic. Chua
should immediately release all figures about dengue cases and dengue deaths,
nation-wide as well as state-by-state and month-by-month for last year as
well as for the new year.
DAP lawyers led by DAP Deputy
Chairman Karpal Singh offer free legal assistance to families of at least 74
dengue fatalities last year and at least five dengue deaths in the first two
weeks of the new year to sue the Health Ministry, the Local and Government
Ministries, the state governments and the local authorities for
accountability and responsibility.
The Health Minister, Datuk Chua Jui Meng is welcome, whether personally or
through his Deputy Minister, Datuk Sulaiman Mohamad, Parliamentary
Secretary, S. Sothinathan or any Health Ministry official to attend the
political parties/professional groups/civic organizations/NGOs/mass media
roundtable conference on the dengue epidemic at the Selangor Chinese
Assembly Hall, Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, 22nd January 2003 at 11 a.m.
(18/1/2003)
*
Lim Kit Siang, DAP National
Chairman
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http://dapmalaysia.org