Foreign workers make up one third of HKL dengue patients

KUALA LUMPUR: Migrant workers seeking treatment at Hospital Kuala Lumpur in recent days made up one-third of the dengue patients at its wards.

Its internal medicine physician Dr Saiful Safuan Md Sani said the workers were mostly Indonesian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Nepalese.

“Whether locals or foreigners, the patients at HKL tend to come from crowded neighbourhoods,” he said.

The Malaysian Employers Fede­ration called on its members to provide proper housing for foreign workers and teach them good hygiene.

Its executive director Datuk Shamsuddin Bardan said foreign workers should not be made to live in makeshift quarters with no proper facilities.

“If their workers are unhygienic, dengue could spread among them, affecting productivity and profits,” he reminded employers

There should also be better waste management at construction sites to prevent the spread of disease, he said.

“There are often piles of rubbish left at these sites which attract flies, while pools of stagnant water make it easy for mosquitoes to breed.

“Employers need to teach their workers about proper hygiene and how to look after their workplace and accomodations,” he added.

On Sunday, Deputy Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya said 3,000 new dengue cases were recorded nationwide in the past week, with 1,000 being in Selangor.

Selangor Mentri Besar Azmin Ali said the administration had been proactive in fighting the disease.

“We initiated the Terjah dan Musnah (Ambush and Destroy) anti-aedes campaign in areas with a high number of dengue cases,” he said after attending an event at the Tengku Ampuan Jemaah Mosque in Bukit Jelutong here.

Azmin said the problem should be addressed collectively by both the state and federal governments.

> Listen to the anti-dengue public service announcement here: http://bit.ly/1LjPFGV

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