Carcasses of animals in flood-hit areas must be buried as quickly as possible to prevent the spread of flies and fly-related diseases, Health director-general Datuk Seri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah has advised. “Action to prevent the spread of flies should be carried out by the respective states, including burying carcasses as soon as possible,” he said in a post on his Facebook following the National Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre’s meeting yesterday. Dr Noor Hisham also announced that an entomology specialists’ team from the Institute for Medical Research (IMR) would observe the population and identification of different types of flies in flood areas. He said food safety inspections had also been carried out in 250 out of the 261 flood relief centres while food operators were also given typhoid vaccinations. He advised flood victims to cover exposed wounds with water resistant plasters and to wear rubber boots and gloves when cleaning their houses to avoid infectious diseases. “Observing good hygiene is important to prevent infectious diseases such as food poisoning, diarrhoea and leptospirosis during and after floods. “People should wash their hands often, especially before eating and after going to the toilet,” he said, adding that they should also only drink boiled or bottled water. He also advised against eating uncooked food including raw vegetables and ulam (local salad). “Eat cooked food quickly and do not keep food for more than four hours,” Dr Noor Hisham said. He said all hospitals in Kelantan, Pahang and Terengganu had started to receive electricity supply from Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB). He said in Kelantan and Pahang, the health clinic and community clinic had not received electricity supply from TNB and had to rely on generators from TNB and the ministry. “The operating theatres in Kuala Krai Hospital will resume taking emergency cases but this will depend on the results from the water sample taken,” he said. All Health Ministry’s haemodialysis patients in Kelantan were receiving treatment in Universiti Sains Malaysia Hospital while half of all the private haemodialysis services had resumed operations, he said. The hospital had also been able to find its own source of food supply and no longer needed food being sent, he added. Universiti Malaya Faculty of Medicine Dean and Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Prof Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman who was in Kelantan recently, said the enormous amount of garbage required assistance from the Fire and Rescue Department and the military. She said they might need to bulldoze the carcasses of animals away and bury them. Asked if the Fire and Rescue Department would assist in this, its Selangor operations assistant director Mohd Sani Harul said the task was usually handled by local authorities, unless assistance was requested from stations nearest to the affected areas.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 04:46:00 +0000