THE wide coverage on the acute gastroenteritis (AGE) outbreak in the Hilir Perak and Batang Padang districts has made people to be more aware of the condition and take preventive measures even if they are in Ipoh and Kampar.
Clerk Leong Lee Fong, 49, said she has started to boil water, even when it had been filtered, before allowing her family to drink it.
“Prior to the outbreak, my family and I drank filtered water straight from the pipe.
“I have even advised my friends and neighbours not to take risks.
“It is better to be safe than sorry even if the outbreak has not spread to Ipoh,” she said.
Coffeeshop owner Heng Fook Meng, 60, said he was worried about the outbreak because two infants had died from the rotavirus infection.
“The distance between Teluk Intan and Ipoh is not that far.
“Who knows when the virus would spread to Ipoh,” Heng said.
He said water should be boiled, even if it is filtered, before being consumed.
“Thankfully, my business is not affected by the outbreak,” he added.
An insurance company regional manager, known only as Chan, said he was less worried about the virus as his two children had been immunised against rotavirus.
“My parents, who take care of my two children, make sure they only drink boiled water now,” he said, adding that the family was used to drinking filtered water only.
Insurance loss adjuster branch manager Reuben Francis said his family had been drinking only boiled water even before the rotavirus outbreak.
The father of three added that he ensured his children practised proper hygiene.
“Good hygiene must be practised everytime, and not something that you do only when there is a disease,” he said.
Insurance agent M. Periasamy, who has two daughters aged 10 and 14 and an eight-year-old son, said he was constantly monitoring them for AGE symptoms.
Consultant paediatrician Dr David Manickam said the rotavirus was a common cause of AGE in children below two and he had treated a few cases in Ipoh even before the outbreak.
“The virus has been in the country for a long time and even in other developed or developing nations.
“However, such a large outbreak and the two deaths, which were caused by dehydration, made them prominent in the media” he said.
“Those in the urban areas will bring their children to the doctor as soon as the symptoms show, but those in the rural area may wait a few days due to transport or financial problems,” he said, adding that private hospitals have advocated immunisation programmes which administered oral vaccine for babies.
Doctors in Kampar and Ipoh are not reporting high incidents of patients coming in with fever, vomiting or diarrhoea which are the three main symptoms of AGE.
Kampar Hospital director Dr Nailah Safian said there were no apparent rise in the number of patients seeking treatment for the three symptoms.
“I can’t say how many cases there are but there is no increase as Kampar is not within the affected outbreak area.
“Nevertheless, our hospital staff is on stand-by to receive patients from Tapah Hospital, should their wards become full,” she said.
On the other hand, Dr Chee See Choke, 60, who runs a clinic in Kampar said mild diarrhoea cases had increased by 30% since news of the AGE outbreak was reported.
“I have seen up to six cases a day. But these cases were not serious and after treatment the patients had recovered,” he said, adding that such cases had reduced to only one or two a day.
Another general practitioner in Kampar, who wanted to remain anonymous, said worried parents have brought their children to treatment at the slightest sign of diarrhoea.
“This situation has caused a slight increase of number of patients,” he said, adding that most cases were caused by ordinary food contamination and was unrelated to the outbreak.
General practitioner (GP) Dr Lee Yook Yong said since the outbreak two weeks ago, her clinic at Jalan Leong Sin Nam, Ipoh had referred only one case to a private hospital.
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