Health in Malaysia
Leptospirosis is a water contract disease caused by bacteria of the genus Leptospirabacterial. It is a disease that affects both humans and animals. The number of leptospirosis cases had steadily increased from 2011 (2,268 cases with 55 death) to 2015 (8,291 cases with 78 death) and 5,284 cases with 52 death in 2016. Leptospirosis can have important health impact and is a burden to the nation if not well controlled. Addressing leptospisoris includes maintain a clean environment and by not swimming or wading in water that might be contaminated with animal urine, or eliminating contact with potentially infected animals.
Hurricane Maria
In July 2018, CNN in collaboration with the Center for Investigative Journalism (CPI), published an online article in which they had seven disease experts review an official Puerto Rico government mortality database. The seven experts all agreed that since the records listed such a large number of confirmed cases of the bacterial disease leptospirosis, Puerto Rico officials should have declared an "epidemic" or an "outbreak" after Hurricane Maria, instead of choosing to not declare that a leptospirosis outbreak had occurred. The data reviewed included 57 laboratory-confirmed cases of leptospirosis illnesses in 2017. Of those, 54 of them were reported after Hurricane Maria made landfall on September 20, 2017. The number of laboratory-confirmed cases amounted to at least a three-fold increase in cases compared to 2016 and 2015.