Photo Caption: Insecticide fogging of open drains, a common breeding site for

mosquitoes in urban areas, looks impressive but has not controlled dengue in
Malaysia over the last 15 years, as the following graph shows.

Reported Dengue Cases in Malaysia

60000
Reported Dengue Cases

50000

40000

30000

20000

10000

0
1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008

Year

Graph Caption: Reported Dengue cases in Malaysia.

Except for a sudden and so far unexplained drop in 1999 and 2000, the number
of dengue cases has risen every year from 3133 in 1994 to 49335 in 2008, a 15
fold increase.

Dengue continues in increase. In the first 6 months of 2009 (January 1 to June

13) the reported cases increased 28% compared to the same period in 2008.
Alarmingly, the 2009 dengue cases in Selangor, the most urbanized state of
Malaysia, increased 62%. Clearly, the outdoor fogging campaign supervised by
the Ministry of Health has failed. A new strategy is urgently needed in the
Malaysian ‘war against dengue’ which has caused 57 deaths in the first half of
2009.