The Health Ministry has been urged to stop withholding information and statistics on the dengue epidemic as Malaysians have the right to know the truth.

DAP chairperson Lim Kit Siang said its minister Chua Jui Meng should immediately make available the figures on dengue cases and fatalities for each state.

"It is a public scandal that Chua had refused to release real-time important information about dengue outbreak, such as weekly or daily incidence data, case-fatality rates, frequency, and distribution by age, gender, ethnicity, location as well as the number of deaths," he said in a statement.

The former Opposition Leader claimed that the number of dengue-related fatalities last year was the worst ever compared to the previous record of 27,379 cases and 58 deaths in 1998.

Free legal service

The DAP chairperson also said that his deputy, Karpal Singh, has agreed to offer free legal assistance to families of at least 74 dengue victims last year and another five in the first two weeks of this year to sue the health ministry, respective state governments and local authorities to hold them accountable for the unfortunate deaths

The mosquito-borne disease which is prevalent in urban areas had already claimed 14 lives, all Malay children, for the first two weeks of this year. In Ipoh, Lim said, the general hospital has recorded 10 admissions a day.

"Up to now, Chua has refused to disclose the number of dengue cases and deaths (as well as its distribution) for last year, although he never challenged me for giving false figures,"said Lim.

"Malaysia is faced with a great tragedy that the World Health Organisation's warning last July of possible dengue pandemic in the region was not given proper attention by the authorities," he said.

Dapsy new NEC meet

Meanwhile, DAP Socialist Youth (Dapsy) today appointed seven new National Executive Committee (NEC) members at its first National Working Council meeting after its election last week.

Karpal's son, Gobind Singh Deo, also a lawyer, was among the new elected faces from various ethnic background.

Dapsy secretary Anthony Loke said the new committee, among others, will be discussing the government's national service plan in greater depth, so that a memorandum could be sent to Defence Minister Najib Abdul Razak before March.