MIRI: Miri City Council (MCC) will give top priority to curb the dengue outbreak in the city with the focus on two residential areas that had been hard hit by the deadly disease.
Miri City Mayor Adam Yii Siew Sang said MCC had formed the MCC Dengue Outbreak Group on Aug 16 to tackle the problems and among the actions that had been taken by MCC were drain flushing as well as actions against illegal extensions at Taman Tunku, one of the two areas where the dengue outbreak had been detected besides Tudan.
“The Gotong Royong Perdana campaign, together with the Medical Department and other government departments and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to clean up Taman Tunku was done on Sept 7 while the drain flushing operation at Taman Tunku is ongoing,” he said in a statement here today.
In addition, he said MCC will also carry out a Gotong Royong Perdana campaign at Tudan in the near future and to give high priority to combat dengue problem by allocating more resources to the affected areas.
“MCC would like to advise all Miri residents to be on the alert and taking precautionary actions against dengue outbreak in Miri, particularly at Taman Tunku and Tudan areas,” he added.
Yesterday, Sarawak Health Department director Dr Jamilah Hashim in a statement said a 68-year-old man from Taman Tunku in Miri, died of dengue on Sept 22, making his death the first in the area.
Dr Jamilah Hashim, said the man was diagnosed with dengue fever on Sept 19 and his cause of death was stated as “severe dengue with multi-organ failure”.
She further said the death of the man marks the first death in Miri since the area, Jalan Kuching East 3 in Taman Tunku, was declared a dengue-prone area on July 25 and further added that between January to Oct 5 this year, a total of 248 dengue cases were recorded in Miri compared to 30 cases over the same period in 2018, an increase of 726.7 per cent.
She said in the same period, 11 areas in Miri have been declared dengue-prone areas compared to only two in 2018, an increase of 450 per cent. – Bernama
