The government has been lambasted for playing down the ongoing dengue epidemic in the country which has so far resulted in 100 deaths and over 45,000 cases.

parliament pandikar amin anwar ibrahim lim kit siang dap pkr pc 121108 04 DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang labelled this as the worst dengue outbreak in the country and accused the government, especially the Health Ministry, of indulging in a conspiracy of silence.

"It came as a shock to me, as it must be to all Malaysians, that 100 lives have been lost to dengue in the first 50 weeks of this year," he said in a statement today.

He also lamented that the media too had failed to report the situation.

Lim was responding to the latest dengue statistics released by the director of the Health Ministry's Disease Control Division Dr Hassan Abdul Rahman yesterday.

symptoms of dengue fever 110105 Hassan confirmed that two more people had succumbed to the dengue fever last week, bringing the number of fatal cases in the country to 100.

He also revealed that the latest total number of dengue cases in the country had exceeded 45,000.

This, said Lim, was another shocker as this new figure had crossed the 40,000 mark of last year even before the full year was over.

Chikungunya too...

He said that Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai must explain the reason to play down the dengue situation.

"He should be spearheading a nationwide anti-dengue public campaign to save lives by reducing avoidable deaths as well as mitigate considerable unnecessary sufferings," he added.

chikungya fever info 191208 Lim also said that the minister should immediately make public facts and figures on the dengue outbreak.

He suggested that a week-by-week data of dengue cases and fatalities in all states and at national level was made available.

The veteran politician was also stunned over reports that the nation had seen the first fatal case of Chikungunya fever.

"This was completely unheard of recently," he said.

He added that in this case too there had been no proper ministerial leadership provided by Liow to educate the public about this emerging disease in the country.

He said that the minister should show concern in maintaining high standards of public health in the country.

What is dengue fever?

What is chikungunya fever?