Spatio-Temporal Distribution of Dengue Incidence Rate (DIR) in Selangor, Malaysia

Abstract

Epidemiology records show that dengue fever has contributed significant upsurge in number of cases and deaths in the world population until the late nineteenth century saw an upward trend and caused global warning in public health sector. This virus is transmitted on to human by the bite of a female Aedes aegypty mosquito, simply recognized by white marking on its legs and lyre on the upper surface of its thorax. In Malaysia, dengue disease has been occurred since the first case in Penang in 1901 and continuously showed an intensity increment over the past few decades. Dengue epidemics in Malaysia was observed predominantly confined to the densely populated and urbanized areas of Peninsular especially in Selangor. Dengue cases recorded at the district level in Selangor over seven years’ period were used due to ample evidence of dengue and peak transmission occurred in year 2014 and 2015. The results were clustered by district based on the mean annual DIR values to classify the dengue risk categories. Higher incidence rate was located at four districts; Petaling, Hulu Langat, Klang and Gombak.

Keywords: Spatio-temporal, Dengue, Dengue Incidence Rate (DIR), Selangor.