KOTA KINABALU: Sabah has recorded 76 cases of\u00a0whooping cough or Pertussis from January until yesterday, an increase of\u00a0986 per cent from only seven cases during the same period last year, said Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa.
\nShe said Kota Kinabalu had\u00a0the highest number of cases with 20, followed by Lahad Datu\u00a0(16), Tawau (15), Putatan (eight) and four cases each in Semporna and Papar.
\nKunak and Tambunan recorded three cases each, while Sandakan, Kinabatangan and Tuaran had one case each.
\nOne death was also recorded during the period. Of the total number of cases, 41 involved Malaysians, 27 Filipinos and eight Indonesians,\u201d she told reporters after the town hall session on the Health White Paper here on Friday.
\nElaborating, Dr Zaliha said Pertussis is a vaccine-preventable disease which is caused by\u00a0the bacterium Bordetella\u00a0pertussis found in the mouth,\u00a0nose and throat\u00a0of an\u00a0infected\u00a0person.
\nThe bacteria spreads through\u00a0respiratory droplets produced during\u00a0coughing and\u00a0sneezing and can infect people of all ages. However, infants and children who are not\u00a0fully protected by immunisations are the most at risk.
\n\u201cUsually, those who are infected will experience a prolonged cough for one\u00a0to two\u00a0weeks and can last up to two\u00a0months. This severe and prolonged cough causes the patient to turn blue\u00a0(cyanosis) when they have trouble breathing, which can result in seizures,\u201d she said.
\nIn this regard, Dr Zaliha said the Health Ministry, through the Sabah Health Department, has increased monitoring and implemented serious efforts to prevent the spread of the disease.
\n\u201cVaccination is an effective and safe way to prevent the disease. According to the National Immunisation\u00a0Schedule, babies will be given four doses of the Pertussis vaccine. They will be given the jabs at the age of two months, three months and\u00a0five months\u00a0and a booster dose at 18 months,\u201d she said.
\nDr Zaliha advised those with symptoms to cover their mouth when coughing and sneezing and immediately wash their hands afterwards.
\n\u201cThose with symptoms are also advised against\u00a0kissing infants as they are most likely to get infected with Pertussis,\u201d she said.
\n— BERNAMA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah has recorded 76 cases of\u00a0whooping cough or Pertussis from January until yesterday, an increase of\u00a0986 per cent from only seven cases during the same period last year, said Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa. She said Kota Kinabalu had\u00a0the highest number of cases with 20, followed by Lahad Datu\u00a0(16), Tawau (15), Putatan (eight) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":20124,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-20123","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nation-news"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20123"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20125,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20123\/revisions\/20125"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}