Fourth email and fifth question to Khir
Toyo - why Selangor record more than 600 per cent higher incidence of dengue
cases than Singapore in first week of January 2003 after more than 1,000 per
cent higher incidence of dengue deaths than Singapore in the current dengue
epidemic
Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang
(Petaling Jaya,
Friday):
While awaiting for the reply by the Selangor Mentri Besar, Datuk Seri Dr.
Mohamad Khir Toyo to my third email, I today sent him a fourth email and a
fifth question on the worst dengue epidemic in the Selangor state, which has
caused the highest number of dengue cases as well as the highest number of
dengue deaths in the state's history, the overwhelming majority of which
were totally unnecessary and avoidable.
My fifth question to Khir Toyo was whether he had instructed a blackout on
release of all state-wide data on the incidence of dengue cases and deaths
in the Selangor state for the past month, which would be a serious denial of
the right to information of the people of Selangor about the status of the
dengue epidemic and violation of the even more grave and fundamental right
to life of the fatal victims of the dengue epidemic.
I posed this question to the Selangor Mentri Besar because the periodic
information about the incidence of dengue cases and deaths in Selangor state
by the Selangor exco member in charge of health, Datuk Tang See Hang had
suddenly dried up in the past month.
On 6th January 2003, Tang gave data of nation-wide and state-by-state
incidence of dengue cases and dengue fatalities last year as of December 14,
2002, as follows;
|
State |
No. of
Dengue cases |
Fatalities |
|
Selangor |
8710 |
13 |
|
Kuala
Lumpur |
6342 |
2 |
|
Johore |
3649 |
15 |
|
Perak |
2812 |
10 |
|
Kelantan |
1517 |
1 |
|
Negeri
Sembilan |
1367 |
3 |
|
Terengganu |
1144 |
2 |
|
Sarawak |
891 |
4 |
|
Penang |
868 |
1 |
|
Pahang |
860 |
0 |
|
Kedah |
686 |
0 |
|
Melaka |
317 |
0 |
|
Sabah |
273 |
2 |
|
Perlis |
179 |
0 |
|
Total |
29615 |
53 |
Subsequent developments have shown that these were grossly understated
figures, especially with regard to dengue fatalities in Selangor as well as
countrywide.
On 17th January, 2003, Tang was
reported in the local press as saying that in the first full week of January
from January 5 to 11, 2003, there were 683 dengue cases reported in Selangor
or a 474.82% increase from the 147 cases for the same period last year. The
worst areas were Gombak with 126 dengue and 12 dengue haemorrhage fever (DHF),
Shah Alam with 114 dengue and 1 DHF, Subang Jaya with 83 dengue and 1 DHF.
In early February, it was reported
that the Subang Jaya Municipal Council topped all areas in the state with
the most number of dengue cases for January - 173 cases as compared to 45
cases in January last year, or an increase of 284%.. (Sin Chew 7.2.03)
At this high rate of increase in the incidence of dengue for Subang Jaya,
jumping from 84 dengue cases in the first full week of January to 173 cases
for the whole month of January, the whole Selangor state would have recorded
over 1,000 dengue cases for January alone!
In March last year, the Selangor State Government had shown a greater sense
of urgency when it convened an emergency meeting to deal with the deadly
dengue outbreak because for the year till 9th March, 2002, there were 823
cases of dengue and two deaths, which was a 54 per cent increase from the
536 cases for the same period the previous year in 2001.
The present dengue situation in Selangor is most critical and many times
more serious with a higher fatality rate than last year, but there is no
similar sense of urgency on the part of the Selangor State Government to
combat the killer dengue disease.
To illustrate the seriousness of the dengue epidemic in the Selangor state,
I compared the dengue statistics for the first full week of January from,
5th to 11 of last month for Selangor with Singapore, as both have almost the
same population of 4.1 million people.
Tang had said that from Jan. 5 to
11, 2003, Selangor reported 683 dengue cases. The comparative dengue
statistics for Singapore for the first full week of January were 104 dengue
cases, i.e. Selangor has more than 600 per cent higher Incidence of dengue
cases as compared to Singapore.
In my email to Khir Toyo, I asked:
"Why, oh why, did Selangor record more than 600 per cent higher incidence of
dengue cases than Singapore in the week from Jan. 5 to 11, 2003, after
recording more than 1,000 per cent higher incidence of dengue deaths than
Singapore in the current dengue epidemic?"
I ended my fourth email to Khir Toyo stating that an urgent answer from him
was warranted as life in Selangor and Malaysia cannot be assumed to be so
cheap as compared to Singapore, in terms of public health care to cut down
unnecessary and avoidable dengue deaths.
(21/2/2003)
*
Lim Kit Siang, DAP National
Chairman
|
http://dapmalaysia.org