Enraged over the government's alleged inaction to contain the dengue epidemic, DAP chairperson Lim Kit Siang has sent an open email to Health Minister Chua Jui Meng asking him how he is able to sleep peacefully.

In a press statement today, the veteran politician said his email contained o­ne simple question: "How can you sleep peacefully at night when o­ne unnecessary death after another keeps mounting without stop in the worst dengue epidemic raging unchecked in Malaysia for the past nine months?".

The DAP chief also challenged Chua to make public the actual number of dengue cases and the fatalities for last year and this year.

"I had repeatedly said that there must have been over 100 dengue fatalities in the country last year (when in the worst dengue epidemic in 1998 there were o­nly 57 deaths), and that there could be as many as 20 dengue deaths for the first two months of January and February 2003."

"Why is Chua ( photo ) not prepared to prove me wrong by making public the actual number of dengue cases and dengue deaths last year as well as in January and February 2003?" he asked.

Lim also said that he was just informed about another dengue related death involving a 77-year-old housewife from Kampung Sungai Ara in Selangor.

According to him, Moh Ah Tong died o­n Feb 9 at the University Hospital Medical Centre.

He added that o­n Feb 28, Indonesian domestic helper Suwendah Tasrip from Klang died at the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital after nine days of hospitalisation for dengue.

Media blackout

Meanwhile, the DAP leader said Chua must be held responsible for a double media blackout the full and accurate information about the statistics of the epidemic and the continuing blackout of the epidemic which denied the people timely information about it.

He added that over the past three months, he has issued more than 60 media statements and sent 11 e-mails o­n the issue to Selangor Menteri Besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo.

"Unfortunately, my efforts had been all to no avail so far as the Health Ministry and the Selangor state government seemed to have both developed and increasingly higher threshold of tolerance and apathy to dengue deaths, to the extent that a death from dengue is regarded as an embarrassing statistic to be hidden from public knowledge," he said.

However, Lim reminded Chuah and Mohd Khir that he would not rest from his constant watch o­n the epidemic.

"Chua and (Mohd) Khir may hope that I will give up out of despair at the futility of my almost daily monitoring and alarm-sounding of the worst dengue epidemic in the history of the nation and Selangor, but let me give them notice that I will neither rest nor surrender to their indifference and apathy," he said.

He also urged the public to cooperate with him and provide him with the actual information of the dengue situation o­n the ground.

Cabinet instruction

In an e-mail communique to Lim last week, Mohd Khir revealed that the statistics related to the dengue outbreak this year could not be made public due to an instruction from the cabinet.

The menteri besar also revealed that there were more than 15,500 reported cases in Selangor and the Federal Territory last year.

Dengue is caused by the aedes mosquito and those affected suffer from pain in their joints, fever and rashes.

Last July, 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.