The Health Ministry wants to step up integrated action with other agencies especially local authorities (PBT) to ensure the environment especially vacant lots, construction sites and public places are free of Aedes mosquitoes, which spread dengue fever and Zika infection.

To control the breeding of Aedes, Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah hoped PBT would ensure rubbish collection would be conducted at least three times a week and to implement the recycling programme.

He said the ministry would continue with its collaboration with seven ministries and agencies via the special dengue task force to curb dengue cases and Zika virus infection.

"The Health Ministry hoped the cooperation of all parties including the community in taking preventive measures could be intensified to stop the spread of dengue and Zika virus into the country," he said in a statement here yesterday.

On dengue cases, he said there was a drop nationwide in the last three weeks and the ministry's monitoring for Feb 7 to 13 period found there were 2,590 cases compared to 3,312 cases the previous week.

READ: 37 dengue deaths since January this year - Dr Subramaniam

During the week concerned, there were six fatalities reported due to dengue complications with two cases each in Penang, Selangor and Terengganu.

"As at Feb 13, there were 43 deaths reported compared to 52 for the same period last year," he said.

Ministry monitoring also showed a fall of 11 per cent in outbreak localities from 1,329 localities the week before to 1,185 localities in the sixth week.

However, Dr Noor Hisham said the cumulative total number of dengue cases rose to 19,733 cases recorded for the period from January to 13 Feb compared to 18,351 cases for the same period in 2015.

On Zika virus, he said no infection was found in the country based on the continuous survellance conducted by the National Public Health Laboratory (MKAK) and the Institute of Medical Research (IMR).

READ: Health Ministry issues guidelines over Zika virus infection

"There was Zika infection detected in the country from the 393 samples tested until Feb 14," he said.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) stated that Thailand was the latest of 34 countries to have reported Zika infection case as at Feb 12.