ELC590

SAMPLE ARTICLE 2
(With student’s notes)

Dengue is our responsibility

Friday February 6, 2015
8:43 AM GMT+8

FEBRUARY 6 — The recent rainy season has caused an increase in dengue cases.

While dengue incidents and deaths dropped in 2011 and 2012, it’s been coming back
with a vengeance since. (Fellow columnist Erna Mahyuni had a brush with it — read
about that here.)

Last year alone, dengue killed 215 people nationwide, which is Malaysia’s highest
single-year death figure for the disease in two decades and more than the total lives
lost in the three preceding years.

Last year was also the first time the number of reported cases hit six-figures in recent
years. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 108,698 Malaysians were
infected in 2014, a 151 per cent increase in comparison to 2013.

For perspective, that’s more than 27 per cent higher than the total number of cases
for 2011, 2012 and 2013 combined.

Updated: 5 March 2018

And there’s no sign of the disease letting up either. In a four-week span up to Jan 31,
some 12,002 cases of dengue were reported. More than half that figure — 6,686 —
was in Selangor.
Now dengue isn’t just our problem. WHO estimates that up to 50-100 million people
are infected across more than 100 countries worldwide annually, and severe dengue
is “a leading cause of hospitalization and death among children and adults” in Asian
and Latin American countries.

Background to
topic

In WHO’s words: “About half of the world’s population is now at risk.”

But we spend millions every year fighting dengue, do we not? So what’s going wrong
now? That’s for the higher-ups to say. But one thing is clear: Putrajaya’s efforts aren’t
working.

Recall that in July last year deputy prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the
National Committee on Dengue, which he chairs, will bring down the number of
dengue cases in two months. For the two-month campaign, the health ministry had
asked for RM20 million.

Up to that point, 48,845 cases had been reported nationwide with 92 deaths. Fast
forward six months or so later, we have had 108,698 cases with 215 deaths up to
Dec 31, 2014.

So how do we fight this?

But fighting dengue shouldn’t be up to the government alone. Our well-being is our
responsibility too.

Let’s remember that dengue is primarily transmitted by the Aedes mosquito. The
Aedes mosquito breeds primarily in man-made containers, hence dengue is rising
fast in urban and semi-urban tropical areas. 

Now WHO’s guidelines states that right now preventing dengue is all about
controlling its vector — mainly the Aedes mosquito.

Of course this isn’t all about us at our neighbourhoods — for example construction
sites are the worst in terms of harbouring Aedes breeding grounds.  Contractors have
been fined before for this offence and the highest fine to-date is RM30,000,
according to news reports. Furthermore, first-time offenders can be fined up to

Updated: 5 March 2018

RM10,000 or two years’ jail (or both) while repeat offenders face up to RM50,000 fine
or five years’ jail (or both).

In any case, what we need to do is clear.

Recommendation

If we each clean up our own homes and local parks (or any other public area we use)
of potential Aedes breeding grounds, and if Putrajaya steps up enforcement
drastically on non-residential offenders as far as Aedes breeding goes, we might
have this disease back under control. Prevention is better than cure.

Meantime if you have severe headache or fever, or feel pain behind your eyes, have
muscle or joint pains, feel nauseous, are vomiting or have rashes, best get yourself
checked immediately. Early detection and proper medical care reduces fatality rates
to below 1 per cent.

Adapted from: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/opinion/khairie-

hisyam-aliman/article/dengue-is-our-
responsibility#x7c00eCffBXMzMgo.99

Updated: 5 March 2018