A second teenage girl has died in Malaysia of suspected Japanese encephalitis amid fears that the mosquito-borne neurological disease may become an epidemic, news reports said yesterday.
Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said domestic animals found to be carrying the virus that causes the disease will be quarantined and culled, the national news agency Bernama reported.
Hasnira Akmat Hussin, 13, died on Tuesday night, five days after she was admitted to a hospital in the northeastern Kelantan state, the New Straits Times daily said.
She complained of headache last Wednesday and vomited that night before slipping into a coma when she was admitted to the hospital. She died without regaining consciousness, the report said.
It quoted doctors as saying that initial investigations showed the girl's brain had been affected, a symptom of Japanese encephalitis, but the exact cause can only be ascertained after tests.
The Japanese encephalitis virus is picked up by the culex mosquito when it stings animals, usually pigs. When the mosquito stings a person afterward, the virus enters the bloodstream.
Most infections are mild, causing fever and headaches or no apparent symptoms. But about 1 in 200 infections cause severe complications to the central nervous system, resulting in disorientation, comas, seizures, paralysis and death.
Another 13-year-old girl, Siti Mardiana Mohammed Ramli, died last Thursday of suspected Japanese encephalitis, also in Kelantan state. A 27-year-old epileptic woman, Norhayati Awang, in Kelantan is confirmed to have contracted the virus, and is undergoing treatment. All the victims lived in the Tanah Merah district of Kelantan.
But the two schoolgirls and Norhayati lived far from each other within the district and did not have any contact, the Star daily said, quoting State Public Health Committee Chairman Takiyuddin Hassan.
This indicates there may be more than one breeding ground of culex mosquitos in the district since the maximum flying range of the insect is only 2km, Takiyuddin was quoted as saying.
Bernama quoted Muhyiddin, the agriculture minister, as saying that the Veterinary Services Department had taken representative blood samples from six horses, 24 heads of cattle and 10 goats in Tanah Merah to determine whether they carry the virus.
If the virus is detected, animals in those particular farms would be quarantined and culled, he said. Officials are also hunting for wild boars in the area to get their blood samples, he said.
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