Call on Mahathir to end the alarming rise of dengue deaths by halting
the tussle between two Ministries and their Ministers not over turf and
territorial aggrandizement but to avoid responsibility for the anti-dengue
campaign and fatalities
Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang
(Penang, Sunday):
The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad should end the alarming
rise of dengue deaths, which have risen to at least 54 fatalities in the
final lap of last year or four short of the worst dengue year for the
country in 1998 which killed the record number of 58 people, with at least
two new dengue deaths on the first day of 2003. No one knows however what
was the final death toll from the dengue outbreak for the whole of last year
as such information is still protected under the Official Secrets Act.
The first thing Mahathir should do is to halt the tussle between two
Ministries and their Ministers not over turf and territorial aggrandizement
but to avoid responsibility for the anti-dengue campaign and fatalities.
The Minister for Housing and Local Government, Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting told
Mingguan Malaysia today that although the anti-dengue campaign was not fully
placed on the shoulders of the Ministry for Local Government, his Ministry
was prepared "voluntarily" to make a success of the campaign.
Although Ong gave the impression that his Ministry was most charitable and
benevolent, acting like a "good Samaritan", to volunteer help in the
anti-dengue campaign when it was not its primary responsibility, this was
not what the Health Minister, Datuk Chua Jui Meng said in Johore Bahru on
13th December 2002 - where Chua made it very clear that it was the Ministry
for Housing and Local Government which was more responsible for the dengue
outbreak.
Chua even revealed that the Cabinet recently instructed the Housing and
Local Government Ministry "to take all the primary prevention efforts" as 72
per cent of dengue cases occurred in areas under the jurisdiction of local
authorities while only 28 per cent of the dengue-affected areas were under
the responsibility of the Health Ministry or outside the jurisdiction of the
local authorities.
While Ong and Chua shadow-box as to which Ministry has the primary
responsibility for the anti-dengue campaign, Malaysians to the tune of at
least 54 lives last year and two children who died on New Year's Day became
the victims of the dengue outbreak and the inter-Ministerial warfare.
This is most irresponsible and inexcusable especially as the World Health
Organisation last July had issued a grim warning to all governments in the
region about the virulent dengue outbreak and the urgent need for effective
counter-measures to reduce the expected high incidence of the disease and to
save human lives.
At the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday at the latest, Mahathir should appoint a
Cabinet Committee headed by a senior Cabinet Minister who could knock the
heads of the two quarrelling Ministers together and end the disgraceful
squabble between the two Ministries and revamp the entire anti-dengue
campaign before more lives are lost this year.
The Cabinet meeting on Wednesday should also direct the immediate release of
all data about the dengue outbreak last year to the public, with a
month-by-month and state-by-state breakdown of the number of cases and
fatalities, as well as their incidence according to locality, age, gender
and ethnicity.
I understand that there are four distinct but closely related viruses that
cause dengue. Recovery from infection by one provides lifelong immunity
against that serotype but confers only partial and transient protection
against subsequent infection by the other three. There is good evidence that
sequential infection increases the risk of more serious disease resulting in
dengue haemorrhage fever (DHF).
During epidemics of dengue, attack rates among susceptibles are often
40-50%, but may reach 80-90%. Without proper treatment, DHF case fatality
rates can exceed 20%. With modern intensive supportive therapy, such rates
can be reduced to less than 1%.
Malaysians are entitled to know where Malaysia stands, as far as the dengue
outbreak last year, in the band of DHF case fatality rates between less than
1% and over 20%.
The silence of the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) on the dengue
outbreak has continued for so long that it has become a scandal, and MMA
officials should make their voice heard on this important public health
issue before they themselves come under the public scrutiny.
(5/1/2003)
*
Lim Kit Siang, DAP National
Chairman
|
http://dapmalaysia.org