Why wait for more than one month to publish the Japanese Encephalitis (JE) case in Jalan Stakan, Samarahan?
According to the press statement of the Sarawak Health Department, a 7-year old child was infected with JE and admitted to Sarawak General Hospital on 25-5-2017. After 10 days of treatment in the hospital, the child was discharged on 5-6-2017.
Surely, before the child was discharged on 5-6-2017, the Sarawak Health Department would have already known that he was infected with JE.
The Health Department, in its yesterday’s statement confirming the JE case, also called upon the public to take certain precautionary measures and be more alert, eg. take vaccination and ensure that the children had their vaccination, use insect repellent while engaging in outdoor activities, sleep in mosquito tents, etc and in case of fever, joint aches, nauseating or headache, immediately go to the nearby clinic and hospital to receive treatment. Early treatments will help reduce fatality rate.
All these are valid precautionary measures which the public ought to know.
My question to the Sarawak Health Department is: Why only publish this information more than one month after the Health Department became aware of the JE case?
It even seems to me that the Sarawak Health Department initially had no intention to disclose the JE case but because it was widely published in the internet, the Health Department had no choice but to confirm the rumour with an official statement.
For those who were unsuspectingly infected with JE before the announcement, is the Sarawak Health Department going to be held responsible? And for those who unfortunately died (if any) because they were unaware of the JE case and thus did not seek immediate treatment despite the symptoms, how will the Health Department be held responsible for and compensate the family for their loss?
Had the Health Department published this information earlier, less people may have been infected.
The Health Department should not be afraid of possible public panic when such cases were announced. I believe the people in Sarawak are mature and wise enough to take such announcement rationally by following the suggested precautions. They will also play an important role in helping to contain the spread of the disease.
Lastly, I call upon the Sarawak Health Department to respect the public’s right to know and not to cover-up or delay publishing such cases in future. In this IT era, such cases will ultimately be made known to the public and if the government agencies or departments only come up with official statements after wide-spread rumours of such cases, the people will further lose their confidence in the government.