BUKIT MERTAJAM, The Penang Health Department (JKNPP) is taking drastic action by inspecting houses rented to foreigners around Machang Bubok, here, following the increase in dengue cases in the area.

The department’s Vector Borne Diseases Inspectorate branch chief Mohd Wazir Khalid said the locality is one of the dengue hotspot areas, with the longest period of 63 days, which currently records 27 cases involving residents.

‘We conduct operations in the area based on hotspot localities and uncontrolled outbreak localities, where six cases have been reported. We went down to the same location last week to provide information to residents, especially foreigners renting houses in the area.

‘However, in today’s inspection, we found that the condition of houses rented by foreigners is still the same, which is dirty, and found larvae in some houses, even though we have repeatedly told them to clean their homes,’ he told reporters after operations, dubbed ‘Operasi Khas Gempur Aedes’ in Machang Bubok and Juru toda
y.

Mohd Wazir said that an inspection of the houses rented by foreigners in Juru also found that their homes were dirty, with the surrounding area not taken care of, and there were also larval breeding sites.

He added that, during operations, larvae were found in rubber shoes, paint can lids, abandoned rubber mats and outside the premises, and he had issued seven compound notices, worth RM3,500.

Meanwhile, he said that a house rented to an Indonesian had been used as a cooking place for meals sold in a restaurant, and it was dirty, therefore he passed the information on to the department’s Food Safety and Quality Division for further action.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency