KL unveils more measures to curb encephalitis virus
KL unveils more measures to curb encephalitis virus
KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): Malaysia, saying it was facing an emergency, on Thursday announced new measures to curb a fatal encephalitis outbreak that has killed up to 61 people over six months.
Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said buffer zones would be created around infected pig farms and all pigs in the zones would be slaughtered.
"We are facing an emergency situation in our country," Abdullah was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency after chairing a cabinet task force charged with curbing the epidemic.
"We have decided to use the preventative approach because of the pig farms in other areas which are highly likely to be infected with the virus, which is transmitted by the Culex mosquito," he said.
The cabinet on Wednesday named Abdullah to replace Health Minister Chua Jui Meng as head of the task force which was set up on March 17, amid fears the Japanese encephalitis virus could affect other livestock.
Foreign reporters were barred from the press conference at which Abdullah spoke.
Health officials said three more people, all from Negeri Sembilan state, had died, raising the death toll to 61 since the outbreak began in October.
Nine others were suspected to have contracted the mosquito- borne virus, bringing to 166 the number of infections so far, they said.
The epidemic first broke out in pig farms in the northern state of Perak in October and was reported to have killed 15 people before spreading to Negeri Sembilan state in the southwest two months later.
Compounding the problem, a new encephalitis strain called "Hendra" -- first discovered in 1994 affecting horses and human in Brisbane, Australia -- was found in some patients.
The epidemic has prompted a health scare and crippled Malaysia's 1.5 billion ringgit ($395 million) pig rearing industry.
Transport Minister Ling Liong Sik, the task force deputy chairman, was quoted as saying that all pigs including healthy ones within the buffer zones would be killed.
"What we have decided today is that we will not just pay attention to infected areas. What is important is to create a buffer zone around the infected areas and destroy all within that circle," he added.
Ling said soldiers would continue mass pig culling operations in four villages in Negeri Sembilan and might try a new killing process using carbon monoxide to speed up the exercise.
The operation, which began Saturday, aims to kill some 320,000 infected pigs in 10 days.
A Malaysian soldier got his toe fractured when a 200 kilogram pig went wild and stepped on his foot during a mass culling operation, a report said on Thursday.
The incident occurred when the soldier and his colleagues were herding the pigs to a pen to shoot them, The Sun newspaper said.
More than 20 pigs in the pen panicked and one stomped on the soldier's foot.
Bernama said Second Finance Minister Mustapa Mohamed would head a new committee to decide on financial aid for pig farmers and handle culling and vaccination expenses.
Five members of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have arrived along with two Australian experts, it said.
Mohamad Izat Emir, chairman of the National Consumer Protection Council, said the outbreak should prick the conscience of authorities and pig farmers who had "closed one eye" to unhygienic rearing methods.
He called for a national program to relocate pig breeders in centralized modern farms.