KUALA TERENGGANU: Abandoned houses and plots pose a great challenge to the Terengganu health department's fight against dengue as the local community tends to treat such areas as illegal dumping grounds.
Terengganu health director Dr Mohammad Omar said such irresponsible acts can create breeding grounds for the Aedes mosquito, the vector that carries the dengue virus.
“The problem is further aggravated during the rainy season, when there will likely be spaces for water to stagnate among the rubbish dumped there.
“The community needs to be aware of their actions.
We need to work together to curb the disease,” he said when met at an anti-dengue programme in Kg Pengkalan Berangan, Marang.
He said the first dengue case in the state this year involved a 47-year old father, Mohd Aris Sulaiman, and his two children, 20-year-old Norhafizah and eight-year-old Muhammad Amir Mirza, who live about 10m away from an abandoned house in the village.
Empty food containers filled with water were found at the abandoned house which was almost hidden by thick undergrowth.
“Our checks found five more such places in the village so we organised a ‘gotong-royong’ (communal effort) to clear these places as one of the steps to stop the disease from spreading any further,” Dr Mohammad said.
He however said that measures to control the disease in Terengganu have been effective with the number of cases dropping by 85.5% last year compared to 2016.
In 2017, 292 dengue cases were recorded in Terengganu, with one fatality compared to the previous year when there were 2,009 cases and 20 deaths.
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