JANUARY 29 — My parents were having one of their micro arguments about Jingle.

It is a plant that I had brought back to the condo placed in a glass vase with colourful gel beads in it.

“You better take the plant out. Who knows, there might be larvae in there,” argued Mum.

Dad’s comeback was: “There isn’t.”

Two or three sentences later, it was decided that Jingle would be transplanted from the vase it had called home all these years and planted solidly into soil.

“It might die,” I said, to which both my parents gave the assurance it would not.

After all, since Jingle was that old, Dad had previously pruned it and planted part of Jingle in a pot.

My parents have in the past year grown ever so paranoid of larvae, mosquitoes and dengue.

Granted, we live in a condo, but one never knows where a pesky mozzy can wreak havoc.

So checking for larvae, placing Abate and using mosquito repellent are very much part of the routine.

Almost everyone was in hyperdrive over the spectre of dengue last year. Check the flowerpots, used tyres, containers and toilet bowls. Ditto the cemeteries. Larvae could be lurking there.

Headlines screamed the staggering number of infections, along with the number of fatalities.

A government task force was formed and its target was to bring the numbers down within two months. It was war.

The multi-pronged approach saw various parties, ranging from ministries to the public, being roped in to do their bit.

An additional budget was allocated to fight the deadly menace, including dengue prevention programmes.

Subsequently, there was a decline in the number of cases. Whether it was because of a break in dengue season or the intense measures were bearing fruit was anyone’s guess.

The slight respite, it would seem, is over.

We have not even said goodbye to the first month of 2015 and sirens are again blaring that dengue is back. And it could be back with a vengeance.

Forty per cent of cases in Selangor were in the Petaling district. — File pic

Latest statistics from the Health Ministry from Jan 4 up to Monday showed Selangor had 5,162 cumulative cases, followed by Perak with 1,169 cases and Johor with 539 cases. The total number of cases recorded was 9,370. There have been 20 deaths up to Saturday, an increase of 186 per cent for the same corresponding period last year.

Forty per cent of cases in Selangor were in the Petaling district and looking at the list of dengue hotspots, it certainly takes the trophy with the top five areas falling within this area.

At top spot is SS22 in Damansara Utama, which saw infections in the past 211 days.

Barring the fact that there has been a shift from the DEN2 to the DEN1 serotype, which the Health Ministry says led to the increase in cases, there are also other contributing factors.

We are not blameless either, as we allow this menace to spread with our careless attitude.

It doesn’t take much for mosquitoes to breed — all they need is stagnant water and voila, a breeding ground emerges.

Along with the latest statistics came the reminder that indiscriminate dumping of garbage is a factor that has led to the rise in cases.

How many times have we driven past piles of garbage rotting by the roadside?

My nephew once sent me a photo of bags of rubbish neatly stacked beneath a signboard warning those caught littering that they would be fined.

Yup. Lots of people quivering in fright over that.

To make things worse, there are also the multitude of construction sites that have sprouted in the recent past around the Klang Valley.

The ministry’s disease control division director Dr Chong Chee Kheong said such sites are the number one go-to place when there are infections.

It’s easy to fix the problem in one house, he opined, but construction sites are a different matter altogether because of the large area involved.

“Monitoring at the sites is ongoing,” he added.

Yes, there is the communication for behavioural impact (Combi) programme that seeks to exact behavioural change among individuals, family and community by implementing fogging and fines for errant individuals found to have breeding grounds on their premises.

The Combi programme has been suitably intensified, along with other ongoing measures that see the powers-that-be (whether state or federal) huddled in meetings discussing on what to do next.

Then again, all it could take to rid this pesky problem and stop it in its deadly tracks is taking 10 minutes of your time to clean your house and remove possible mosquito breeding areas each week.

So while you gasp upon hearing of a family member, friend or colleague being hit by dengue, remember this: We let it happen.

We are not blameless. And something has to be done. Now.

* Audrey is news editor at Malay Mail. She can be reached at audrey@mmail.com.my.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or organisation and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.