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Thunderstorm, heavy rain in <b>Sabah</b> and Sarawak – BorneoPost <b>...</b> Berita Sabah - News 2 Sabah

Thunderstorm, heavy rain in <b>Sabah</b> and Sarawak – BorneoPost <b>...</b>

Posted: 26 Mar 2014 10:00 PM PDT

KUALA LUMPUR: Thunderstorm and heavy rain in several parts of Sabah and Sarawak are expected to continue until afternoon, the Malaysian Meteorological Department said.

The department, in a statement here today, said the areas affected in Sabah are Kudat and Sandakan.

A similar situation is also expected in Mukah, Sibu, Sarikei, Betong,Sri Aman, Samarahan and Kuching.– BERNAMA

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Minimal impact on <b>Sabah</b> tourism – SATTA - The Borneo Post Online

Posted: 17 Mar 2014 11:13 AM PDT

by Chok Sim Yee. Posted on March 18, 2014, Tuesday

KOTA KINABALU: The case of the missing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370 will have minimal impact on the tourism industry, said the Sabah Association of Tour & Travel Agents (SATTA) chairman Dato' Seri Winston Liaw.

Liaw said the impact of the incident on the travel industry would not be huge because if the plane was hijacked, it could happen to any country and there was no way of knowing it.

He added that the passengers' situation was still unknown, or whether they were in a life threatening situation, thus the impact on the travel industry was not big.

He expects a few cancellations on tours but travelers might choose to postpone their trips or use another airline.

"When something happens to an airline, passengers may not want to board that airline," he said, when contacted yesterday, adding that MAS was known to be very safe.

Liaw was commenting on MAS flight MH370 with 227 passengers, mostly Chinese nationals, and 12 crew members, that had gone missing en route to Beijing, China from Kuala Lumpur since March 8.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has said that the Malaysian authorities were investigating all possibilities as to what caused MH370 to deviate from its original flight path despite media reports that the plane was hijacked.

The investigation team has been working to refine the search area along two possible corridors – a northern corridor stretching approximately from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand, or a southern corridor stretching approximately from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.

Liaw, who is also the managing director of Airworld Travel & Tours Sdn Bhd, said the inbound and outbound tours of his company were still full for the month of April this year.

Nonetheless, he expressed the need to beef up security at the airport following this incident.

On another note, Liaw said he sympathized with the China victims' families. However, he disagreed with the countries which seemingly are pinning the blame of the missing jet on the Malaysian government and MAS as there was still no conclusive answers as to what had happened.

"The government is still investigating the crew and passengers (on MH370) and there was also a passenger from China that has raised suspicions. There is still no conclusive evidence of what has happened so it is unfair to blame Malaysia because there has yet been no answer on who is behind that (the missing plane)."

Meanwhile, tourists from China hoped that all the passengers onboard MH370 would return home safely, some had even expressed concern on the level of security in Malaysia.

"Safety of tourists should be top priority," said Wang Li from Beijing.

On the other hand, a 26-year-old man from Guangdong, who wished to be identified by his surname Yuan, said he hoped the passengers onboard MH370 would return safely.

Yuan said many of the reports on the missing jet broadcasted in China were based on reporting by the United States of America and England, namely, Cable News Network (CNN) and British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

"There aren't much reporting from our side," he said.

He said there have been many suspicions surrounding the missing plane and he wished to know the truth. Yuan said if the plane was hijacked, that meant there was still hope that the passengers were still alive.

Yuan said the incident had not affected his impression of Malaysia, but he reported feeling more positive towards Vietnam for their effort in the search and rescue (SAR) operation.

At this point in time, he hoped that all the passengers would return safely and the relevant authorities would study what actually happened to the missing plane.

Meanwhile, Wang Juan, Li Xiaoyu, Pan Ke and Wang Ruojia from Chengdu initially planned to cancel their trip to Sabah on March 10 when the news of the missing jet broke out. However, they all ended up coming as they could not get a refund on their flight tickets.

Four of them said they were shocked and concerned about the incident and hoped that the passengers are safe.

Despite being on vacation in Sabah, the four of them have been following the ongoing developments on MH370 on China Central Television (CCTV-4) from their hotel rooms.

"What is the reason that the plane went missing? There have been no news on that for so many days," Wang Juan said.

Nonetheless, the incident has raised their concern on the security in our country and they would have cancelled their trip to Sabah if the flight company was willing to refund their air tickets.

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TB is highest contracted communicable disease in <b>Sabah</b> <b>...</b>

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 03:35 PM PDT

KOTA KINABALU: A total of 4,515 cases of tuberculosis (TB) were recorded in Sabah in 2013, which on record is the highest contracted disease compared to other communicable diseases.

State Health Department director Dr Christina Rundi disclosed this yesterday  in her speech delivered by her deputy, Dr Richard Avoi, during the launch of Sabah Anti-Tuberculosis Association's (SABATA) 60th Anniversary Seminar entitled "To Improve Detection, Treatment and Curing Tuberculosis."

According to Dr Rundi, the number recorded for the disease is the highest compared to other communicable diseases such as malaria and dengue.

"TB is on the rise and is a serious problem in Sabah and it is still a challenge to keep the disease under wraps, especially with cases that are diagnosed too late," she said.

She added that possible contributing factors to the delayed diagnosis of TB are due to the patients themselves, who are unaware of early symptoms, or the healthcare delivery system.

"It is also believed that there are still many more undetected cases of TB (in the state), as the search for TB cases is still low," Dr Rundi said.

Another challenge, she said, is to deal with the refusal of treatment, especially from the immigrant community, which has contributed to the rise of drug-resistant TB cases. Therefore, she urged for cooperation between non-governmental organisations and the Health Department to help in controlling TB, especially through awareness programmes.

Meanwhile, head of the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Sector, Dr Jiloris F Dony of the Health Ministry, said that Malaysia ranks seventh on the list of TB-burden countries within the 37 countries listed on the World Health Organisation's Western Pacific Region.

"TB is the second most common communicable disease in Malaysia, after dengue and is the leading cause of mortality among all communicable diseases," Jiloris said. He also said that ensuring quality screening and clinical management of TB cases, providing adequate infection control measures in healthcare facilities and early case findings are, amongst others, efforts to control the spread of TB.

About 230 participants attended the public seminar, organised together with the Malaysian Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis (MAPTB), which was held in conjunction with the World Tuberculosis Day that falls on March 24.

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