Liow says it’s A(H1N1), Rais tells media to say ‘swine flu’
KUALA LUMPUR, June 25 – Shortly after Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai urged the media to use the term Influenza A(H1N1) as recommended by the the World Health Organisation, Information Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim said all media should return to using “swine flu” instead.
Rais said this was to ensure that the people realised the danger of the disease and to get the message across to them more accurately.
It is also easier for (radio and television) announcers to state “selsema babi” (swine flu) than H1N1 in Bahasa Melayu, he told reporters after an official visit to Pos Malaysia, here.
Rais also said that the ministry would monitor programmes broadcasting health-related advertisements to ensure that there was no confusion as to the accuracy of the message as well as the people’s understanding of swine flu/A(H1N1).
“We should not combine health-related matters with confusing advertisements," he said. – Bernama
Adequate frontliners to cope with H1N1 – Liow
KUALA LUMPUR, June 30 – Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said Malaysia is well prepared to handle the Influenza A(H1N1) outbreak as it has adequate medical frontliners to cope with the situation.
However, the public should not take the outbreak lightly as there was a possibility of the situation reaching “sustained local transmission”, meaning the source of infection being unknown, he said when winding up debate on a motion tabled by Dr Lee Boon Chye (PKR-Gopeng) on the flu in the Dewan Rakyat today.
“As such, we have to cooperate closely to fight the outbreak. The pandemic is here to stay and can be here for months. And we have to work together to fight it,” he said.
Liow also said Malaysia was still under the containment measure phase of the National Pandemic Preparedness Plan (NPPP), and had yet to go into the mitigation phase. “Everything is outlined in the NPPP. While there is local transmission, the disease is still under control because we know the source of infection and we are able to detect the patient. The contact point can still be traced,” he said.
Liow said if the swine flu reached the stage of sustained local transmission “we will have to close down most of the schools within the community and proceed with social distancing measures”.
He said that if the situation escalated to such a level, exit screening points in the infected community would be established even though it was not a recommendation of the World Health Organisation in handling the situation.
“We have tight control measures at all entry points. A health declaration form for all visitors. We have taken these measures because we are still able to. We are still at the containment measure stage.
“Singapore is in mitigation (stage), Indonesia and Thailand are undergoing an outbreak, they need mitigation.
“We are trying our level best; we try to contain the pandemic to ensure that it will not spread. Once there is an outbreak, we will go into mitigation measures,” he said.
From his observation, Liow said, in countries such as Indonesia and Thailand where the pandemic had forced the nations to activate their mitigation phase, it had been proven that the virus transmitted quickly through human interaction and travel, making it highly possible for Malaysia to reach such a stage as well.
Liow also said that the virus was capable of undergoing mutation, causing more difficulties in containment and making it very dangerous.
When questioned regarding the ministry’s capacity in ensuring the safety of official entry points, he firmly stated that health officers and surveillance teams had been deployed to all the 53 official entry and exit points throughout the country.
Regarding unobserved illegal entry points used by illegal immigrants to enter the country, Liow told the house that he had requested more cooperation and help from the police and the immigration to monitor the situation.
The minister once again stressed that H1N1 virus did not spread through the consumption of pork or pork products, but it was airborne and transmitted through human interaction.
Speaking to reporters at the Parliament lobby later, he said he would give a full briefing on the swine flu in the Dewan Rakyat on Thursday. – Bernama
Health Ministry denies over-reacting to A(H1N1)
PUTRAJAYA, June 30 – The Ministry of Health today denied that it was over-reacting in handling the Influenza A (H1N1), stressing that it was being proactive in preventing the disease from spreading wider domestically.
The Director-General of Health, Tan Sri Dr Mohd Ismail Merican said the measures taken by the ministry had proven to be successful, as the number of cases recorded daily was not many when compared to most of the other countries in the region, and no death had been recorded yet.
“There are people who claim that since this is a mild and moderate disease, we should relax and concentrate on dengue, but dengue is an ongoing battle and we will never run away from our fight against dengue.
“But at the same time, here we are dealing with a pandemic situation with quite a significant number of deaths around the world. We don’t want that situation to occur in Malaysia.
“It is better to do a bit more than to do less and run into problems at the end of the day,” he told reporters here today.
He was asked to comment on the opinion that the ministry is over-reacting in handling the issue, despite the disease being mild and moderate.
Dr Mohd Ismail said it was true that the disease was mild and moderate, “but it is highly contagious”.
“It is also true that we cannot anticipate the emergence of a new influenza virus and the coming of a second wave, so if we relax now and we don’t test our measures now, we may not be prepared for the next wave,” he said.
Dr Mohd Ismail said the proactive measures taken by the government was also one of the factors in ensuring that the tourists continued to come to this country, even though there were cases of Influenza A (H1N1). – Bernama
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