Dengue Situation and Its Burden in Malaysia

The number of dengue fever cases reported in our nation continues to increase year on year since 2011. Back in 2015, we marked the highest number of cases with 120,836 incidents reported and more than 50% of the cases were reported from Selangor state alone (62,000+). Through the 51st week of 2016, a total of 101,357 cases and 231 deaths was reported. Like in 2015, Selangor accounted for about half of the country’s dengue cases with approximately 50,000 infections. While there is a slight reduction in previous year dengue cases, Malaysia still reports a significant number of dengue cases and remains one of the hardest hit dengue endemic countries.

As the dengue fever case count continues, the Ministry of Health has already reported about 22,000 dengue cases throughout the first quarter of year 2017. Although dengue fever is a prevalent topic in the country, majority of Malaysians are still taking this threat lightly and have yet to see the importance of proactive dengue prevention.

• Nearly 50% of Malaysians do not seem very concern about the menace of this deadly disease.
• 46% of Malaysians think that other parties should be responsible for mosquito control in their neighbourhood instead of taking it as their own responsibility.
• More than 60% of them do not practise checking their homes for mosquito breeding grounds.

Why is dengue a burden?

Dengue poses a serious health threat to Malaysians as at least 58% of Malaysians have suffered from this infection and know someone who has been infected with dengue fever in the past 2 years. The infection which can develop in both adults and children, can be life-threatening if treatment is delayed. Therefore, dengue fever victims are commonly required to visit the doctor for immediate attention and care.

It is relatively costly to treat dengue fever as 38% of Malaysians spent about RM 5001 - RM 10,000 on the medical cost, mainly on hospital care. And in the worst situations, dengue victims lose their lives due to reasons such as the development of severe dengue fever, dehydration and also delayed treatment. In Malaysia, we have lost about 2,500 Malaysians (from year 1996 - 2016) to this deadly infection and this is the dengue episode which causes impact on most health domains, leading to loss in quality of life.

Eliminating Mosquitoes with Integrated Mosquito Management

As mosquito species such as the Aedes aegypti continues to evolve, it is important to keep up with innovative solutions and have an integrated approach to achieve a sustainable mosquito control programme. At Rentokil, our Integrated Mosquito Management (IMM) programme is specially designed by our trained and licensed pest experts and it has been proven to be an effective approach to mosquito control in the long run.

IMM is a holistic programme which involves merely four (4) steps to effectively fight against mosquitoes, targeted at each stage of the mosquito life cycle:

Step 1: Eliminate mosquito breeding grounds (remove stagnant water) in your premises and surrounding areas.

Step 2: Larvicide treatment to control the development of mosquitoes larvae on stagnant water.

Step 3: Thermal fogging or ULV misting to effectively control the adult mosquito population, breaking the mosquito life cycle.

Step 4: Adult mosquito traps to further control the mosquito life cycle.

As the mosquito population continue to proliferate, it is also imperative to foster consistent community action and continuous knowledge sharing to achieve a successful and long-term prevention.

Call us today at 1300 881 911 to find out more about Rentokil Integrated Mosquito Management.