That which bends up

Saturday September 20, 2008

26 more Chikungunya cases reported in the country, says Health Ministry

KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 150 Chikungunya cases were reported in the country between Sept 7 and 13, an increase of 26 cases from the previous week.

...

So far, the cumulative number of cases reported nationwide are 1,975 with most of them in Johor (1,098), followed by Malacca (471), Perak (193), Negri Sembilan (124), 40 each in Selangor and Pahang, four each in Kelantan and Putrajaya, Sarawak (two) and one each in Penang and Kuala Lumpur.

The disease is spread through Aedes mosquito bites.

...

— Bernama

The average person reading this will think "OK, 26 people demam. Big deal."

To infectious disease researchers, this is damn bloody scary. Chikungunya is an emerging disease in SEA (originally from Africa). There were virtually no cases last year, but now there have been 1098 in Johor alone, 1975 nationwide total.

It's spread through Aedes mosquitoes, which helps (the virus, not us) since it's an animal vector that is already quite plentiful in M'sia.

I'm getting increasingly fed up with science reporting in the mainstream media. This ought to be in BIG RED LETTERS on the front page. Something like EXPLODING AFRICAN VIRUS CRIPPLES THOUSANDS OF MALAYSIANS. Then maybe there would be some decent funding and infrastructure for biotech research.