KUANTAN – The Pahang Health Department has confirmed that the pertussis or whooping cough outbreak in Rompin is under control and no new cases have been detected at this time.
Its director Datuk Dr Nor Azimi Yunus has revealed that the spread of information on social media regarding the outbreak did not describe the real situation, but instead scared the public with inaccurate information.
"I ask all netizens not to make any statements that cause confusion, such as 'there is a big epidemic in Rompin', 'don't come to Rompin', 'don't come to Pekan and Pahang'.
"I think the statements are too much and it should not have happened because the epidemic (whooping cough) in Rompin now is under control and (the place is) safe to visit. In fact, we have not detected any new cases until today," she said.
Previously, it went viral on social media, which claimed that the disease became a worse threat after the Covid-19 outbreak and that people were advised not to come to the Rompin district to avoid contracting the disease.
Negative statements were shared by netizens after a pertussis outbreak notification was issued by the Kuala Rompin District Health Office on Aug 14.
Nor Azimi added that the pertussis case in Rompin happened to three individuals in one family in Kampung Bahagia Rompin.
She explained that it was the practice of the health department to label it as an epidemic if there were two or more cases of the same in one locality, and so on for other cases such as dengue.
She also added that after three individuals were confirmed to be infected with the disease, the department had conducted screening tests involving more than 370 individuals, but no new cases were detected.
"We checked more than 50 per cent of the residents in nearby villages, but we found no new cases.
"In addition, as a preventive measure, we have traced 37 close contacts (patients) and have been given prophylactic antibiotics," she said.
She added that the chain of an epidemic could be said to be completely broken if no new cases occur within two weeks of the last case being detected.
"Supposing there is no new case that we detect 14 days after the last case, we expect the pertussis epidemic in Kampung Bahagia to end on Aug 29," she said.