KUALA LUMPUR, March 20 — The dengue cases for the period March 4 to 10 showed a decrease of 118 cases from the previous week’s figure, said Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said 1,153 cases were recorded during the period compared with 1,271 cases in the previous week.

The cumulative number of dengue cases recorded declined by 6,822 cases to 11,496 compared with 18,318 cases for the same period last year.

Dr Noor Hisham said 26 deaths were recorded over the same period, compared with 45 deaths reported in 2017, a drop of 19 cases (42.2 per cent).

A total of 381 locality dengue outbreaks were reported and there were 49 hotspots in four states.

Meanwhile, he noted that three chikungunya cases were recorded in Kota Baru, Kelantan, bringing the total number of cases reported between January and March 10 to 40 cases (34 cases in Kelantan, two cases in Kedah and one each in Sabah, Perlis, Selangor and Sarawak).

He said up to March 10, monitoring through the Zika virus surveillance system by the National Public Health Laboratory and the Institute of Medical Research found the test results of 376 blood samples from patients showed these were negative of Zika virus infection.

Dr Noor Hisham advised people returning to their hometowns or holidaying during the current school break, to ensure the absence of potential Aedes breeding grounds at home, and to use Abate for bodies of stagnant water to kill the mosquito larvae. — Bernama