Dengue cases drop 5.4% last week

PUTRAJAYA: The number of dengue fever cases in the 14th epidemiological week this year (April 2-8) dropped by 5.4 per cent to 2,239 cases from 2,365 cases the previous week, with two fatality recorded.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the cumulative number of dengue fever cases reported to date is 30,926 cases compared to 9,957 during the same period last year, adding that this was an increase of 210.6 per cent.

"Twenty deaths due to dengue fever complications have been reported so far compared to four fatalities in the same period of 2022," he said in a statement today.

Dr Noor Hisham said a total of 93 hotspot localities were reported in the epidemiological week, with 51 of them located in Selangor, 22 in Penang, Sabah (eight), Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya (six each), Kedah and Perak (two each) and one each in Negeri Sembilan and Labuan.

As for chikungunya, he said a total of five cases were recorded in the 14th epidemiological week, with three cases in Negeri Sembilan and two cases in Selangor, making the cumulative number to date to 114 cases.

As for zika surveillance, a total of 723 blood samples and four urine samples were screened, with the results all negative, he said.

-- BERNAMA