Clogged Drains and Rubbish

sourced from NST online

JOHOR BARU: THE Rotarian Action Group (RAG) is calling on the authorities to look into several areas in the city where there are potential breeding grounds for Aedes mosquitoes.

RAG secretary John Cheah named areas such as Taman Sentosa and Jalan Susur Tun Abdul Razak where the drains are clogged up and rubbish are strewn everywhere.

Cheah said he had highlighted the matter to the authorities, but to no avail.

“It takes mosquito larvae about a week to reach adulthood,” he said.

“The clogged drains and rubbish spotted in the two areas have been there for more than three weeks.

 pic by Dazar Suarman

“The authorities should spring into action immediately to clear the rubbish.”

A recent Health Ministry report stated that there were 42,229 dengue cases in the country from January to June. This is an increase of 248 per cent, compared with 12,143 cases in the corresponding period last year.

Cheah also highlighted a report in the Straits Times which quoted Singapore Environment and Water Resources Minister Vivian Balakrishnan as saying that the new dengue vaccine to be marketed by a French pharmaceutical company Sanofi next year was “not good enough”.

Balakrishnan had reportedly said that the vaccine was not effective enough against the two most common types of the dengue virus here — types 1 and 2.

Cheah also called on researchers, academician, engineers, doctors and lecturers to attend a two-day international conference called Second International Conference on Dengue Fever, Situation and Its Control, which starts on Sept 20, to learn ways to fight the epidemic.

The event is organised by Universiti Teknologi Malaysia with the support of the Institution of Engineers Malaysia and Rotary International District 3310.

It is taking place at the university’s Dewan Sultan Iskandar.

The speakers include University of Phayao associate professor Dr Busabong Jamroendararasama and Chiang Mai University associate prof Dr Nopporn Sittisombat, both from Thailand.

“Speakers from Thailand and the Philippines are coming to the event to share their knowledge on dengue. The conference will help us to learn more about combating dengue,” Cheah said.

The conference is priced at RM300 per participant for locals and US$100 (RM318.45) for foreign participants.

For enquiries, call Dr Shamila Azman at 07-556 6157 or Lucas Chew 017-777 7648.