A total of 98 people died of dengue fever in Malaysia from early this year to Dec. 6, Xinhua quoted the Health Ministry as saying in a statement. A total of 44,494 cases of dengue fever had been reported, the Health Ministry's disease control division director Hassan Abdul Rahman said. Between Nov. 30 and Dec. 6, 1,273 cases of dengue fever, including three deaths, were reported, making it the week with the highest dengue cases reported so far this year. Most of the cases were recorded in central Selangor state, totaling 640, followed by southern Johor state (102), northern Kedah state (65), eastern Sarawak state (50), central Pahang state(42), northern Kelantan state (31), eastern Sabah state (23) and 13 each in northern Perlis state and the administrative center Putrajaya. Last week's increase in dengue cases was due to, among others, the rainy weather and the public's lack of awareness of keeping their premises and surrounding free of aedes mosquito breeding grounds, Hassan said. Of the 969 premises inspected by health official, 81 percent of them were found to contain breeding grounds for aedes mosquitoes and a total of 45 compound notices, involving fine of 12,650 ringgit (3,528 U.S. dollars), and 78 notices to clean up, had been issued, he said.
