JOHOR BARU, July 2 — There has been a spike in dengue cases in Johor with 4.272 cases in the first 25 weeks of the year.

Health and environment committee chairman Datuk Ayub Rahmat said this represented a 79  per cent increase over the corresponding period last year, when there were only 2,391 cases.

Ayub said the current hot and dry spell and the hectic pace of development in the city were to blame for the increase.

“We  need to be vigilant at all times. Most of the dengue cases are  detected in housing estates. This shows that residents in housing estates need to step up the cleaning of their surrounding areas,” he said.

“We will step up gotong royong projects to clean up  the neighbourhoods. We  hope  residents will join in. I notice that sometimes when we have such projects, only goverment officers turn up and  residents are not bothered.”

Bernama quoted Deputy Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya as saying the ministry did not prohibit anyone from practising complementary medicine in the treatment and rehabilitation of dengue patients.

Dr Hilmi told the Dewan Negara the ministry did not  stop families of patients families from using papaya leaf juice and crab soup, which had been found to increase platelet count.

He was replying  to a question from S. Bagiam Ayem Perumal, who wanted to know whether traditional treatment would help dengue patients recover.

To the original question, Dr Hilmi said preventive measures like keeping the environment clean and litter-free should be undertaken by everyone because without the involvement of the community, the spread of the dengue problem  would be difficult to control.