IPOH, Nov 23 — The number of malaria cases in the Pos Kemar Orang Asli settlement in Gerik rose to 64 today with the detection of 12 new cases.
Perak Director of Health Datuk Dr Juita Ghazalie said the highest number of 53 cases was in Kampung Senangin, up from 44 yesterday, while the number of cases in Kampung Akei and Kampung Ralak remained at four and one, respectively.
“Three new cases were also detected in Kampung Lediau and Kampung Rantau. The number of people admitted to the Gerik Hospital rose to 54 compared to 20 yesterday,” she said in a statement here.
She said the Hulu Perak District Health Office was conducting screening of contacts and high-risk groups to detect fresh cases.
The Health Department was also destroying the breeding places of the Anopheles mosquito, carrier of the malaria parasite, and spraying larvicide in water catchment areas and tributaries around the settlement.
“The use of focal spray on the walls of the Orang Asli homes, distribution of medicated mosquito nets and fogging were carried out in the settlement over the past three nights,” she said.
Dr Juita said eight medical laboratory technologists from the State Vector Laboratory as well as from the Manjung, Perak Tengah and Kinta districts were helping to read the blood slides to detect cases.
Staff from the Perak Tengah and Kampar health offices were assisting in the control activities, she said.
Director-General of Health Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said last Monday in Putrajaya that the parasite in the malaria outbreak in Pos Kemar was of the Plasmodium vivax (P.vivax) species that was last detected in the area in 2009. — Bernama
