Johor sees almost 30% year-on-year increase in dengue cases

JOHOR BARU: Johor has recorded an increase in dengue cases with 105 cases in epidemiological week 33 (ME33, Aug 14-20), compared with 93 cases in the previous week.

“There was an increase in cumulative cases in ME33 with 1,780 cases this year compared with 1,376 cases in the corresponding period last year,” state Health and Unity Committee chairman Ling Tian Soon said in a statement on Tuesday (Aug 23).

He added that of the week’s new cases, 40 (38.1%) were in epidemic localities while 65 (61.9%) were non-locality infections.

Ling said there was one death from dengue reported this year, a 29-year-old woman from Muar.

He said Johor Baru district had the highest number of cases in the week with 82; followed by Kulai with 10; Kluang and Segamat with three cases each; Muar and Pontian with two cases each; and Kota Tinggi, Mersing and Batu Pahat with one case each.

“There were no cases recorded in Tangkak,” he added.

Separately, he said there were no monkeypox cases reported in Malaysia as of Saturday (Aug 20). He noted that globally, there were 41,358 confirmed monkeypox cases in 94 countries based on statistics from the World Health Organisation (WHO).

He said the Johor monkeypox operations room was opened on July 7 following the close contact investigation of a case reported in Singapore.

“The person has a history of travel to Malaysia, but so far no case of monkeypox has been reported in Johor,” he added.

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