Despite the widely-publicised public outcry over the Health Ministry's silence o­n the dengue epidemic in the country, its minister Chua Jui Meng remained tightlipped and evasive o­n the issue today.

He refused to take a malaysiakini query o­n the matter at the end of a press conference he called at his ministry this morning to inform the public o­n the pneumonia epidemic in China.

Asked for an update o­n the dengue situation, Chua responded with "no".

Posed with another question o­n Suhakam's call o­n the ministry yesterday to be responsible and committed in handling the dengue epidemic, the minister left the room in a hurry.

Two reports

Suhakam said yesterday that the ministry's cooperation, such as by releasing relevant information and statistics of cases and deaths, is a must in preventing the dengue epidemic from claiming more lives.

Suhakam was also disappointed with the non-cooperation from the ministry which repeatedly rebuffed its attempts to obtain the related statistics.

The commission's initiative followed two reports lodged by DAP within two weeks, o­n the dengue epidemic.

In the party's second report lodged to the commission yesterday, chairperson Lim Kit Siang also claimed that a major reason behind the lack of awareness among the public was because the media had been instructed to downplay the issue.

Lim's allegation appears to have some truth in it as no news of yesterday's event at Suhakam could be found in three newspapers today although their reporters were present.

Lim told malaysiakini today that the alleged "blackout" was not so much due to the editorial policy of the papers concerned but because of instructions from a higher authority.

"I believe the reporters had tried very hard to write and publish this news (about dengue), but their hard work had gone to waste because of the instructions," he said.

Lim added that there is no use for the government in trying to petition for the Iraqi people to save their lives when "our own people" are dying of dengue.

Special dengue committee for NAM

The health minister earlier said that his ministry had set up a special fighting dengue committee to ensure that the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) heads of government and their delegations would not be endangered by dengue outbreak during their summit in Kuala Lumpur from Feb 20 to 25.

Chua also said that his ministry had carried out many activities including educating the public o­n how to prevent aedes mosquitoes from breeding around their homes through awareness programmes.

The ministry also took over the functions of more than 50 local councils which had very little or no capacity to control dengue two years ago.

Last September, the World Health Organisation issued an alert to tropical countries, including Malaysia, to prepare for an increase in the number of dengue cases in view of the unusually wet weather conditions.

Vaccination

On the pneumonia epidemic which claimed five lives in Guangdong, China recently, Chua advised the people to take influenza virus vaccination.

Medical experts in China are still investigating the source of infection and have narrowed it down to a mutated strain of influenza virus.

Chua urged the people, especially children, elderly people and other vulnerable groups such as asthma patients, to avoid crowded places as they could be a source of infection.

Symptoms for influenza are fever, headache, tiredness, dry cough, sore throat, nasal congestion and body aches.

The vaccines are not provided in government hospitals but are available at private clinics at a cost of between RM50 and RM100.

On whether the ministry will make it compulsory for travellers from China to have the vaccination before entering Malaysia, Chua said there is no necessity to do so at the moment.