Malaysia : Five Dengue Deaths Reported Last Week

A news report from Bernama, dengue is up and rising :

" KUALA LUMPUR, June 24 : Five deaths due to dengue were reported in the country over the seven days from June 13, Director-General of Health Tan Sri Dr Mohd Ismail Merican said on Thursday.He said two of the deaths occurred in Negeri Sembilan and one each in Perak, Johor and Kelantan.

"Four of the five deaths occurred in dengue epidemic and unclean areas where the breeding rate of the Aedes mosquito, carrier of the dengue virus, was between 1.6 and 13 per cent," he said in a statement.

He also said that during that week, 942 dengue cases were reported, which was an increase of 51 cases compared to the previous week, and took the cumulative number of cases so far this year to 22,251 compared to 23,794 during the corresponding period last year.

"Although the number of cases dropped by six per cent this year, the number of deaths rose by 23 per cent, from the 60 deaths last year to 74 during the corresponding period this year," he said.

Dr Mohd Ismail said that last week, there were 24 active high-risk areas compared to 22 high-risk localities in the previous week, involving states such as Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Johor and Kelantan."