Two years after the Kuala Koh deaths, the scars still remain

Two years have passed since the measles outbreak in May 2019 killed 16 Bateq villagers in the remote outpost of Kuala Koh in Kelantan’s Gua Musang district. Families were ravaged and the social structure of the community was shaken as the national spotlight fell on this sheltered group. Now, as the pandemic rages in the outside world, we find many questions still unanswered.

On a purely structural level, physical improvements were promised in November 2019, when then deputy prime minister Dr Wan Wan Azizah Wan Ismail announced that RM3.3 million had been allocated to improve the living conditions of the villagers.

The funds were to be used to meet various needs of the villagers, including the construction of a power supply system, water treatment system and learning centres.

So have the lives of the villagers improved after the mass death incident?

Still no answers, says village headman

It all started when a Bateq woman died of an unknown disease in Kuala Koh village, Kelantan, on May 2, 2019. Over the next few weeks, young people, babies and a few families passed away. "Their stomachs and throats were swollen, chests felt tight, and they began to vomit. This was how my eldest son and youngest son died," a Bateq woman living in the village recalls.

The "unknown disease" claimed the lives of 16 Bateq people in just one month, ranging in age from one to 63 years old. Among them, half of the dead were young people between 18 and 35 years old. After much speculation, the Health Ministry announced in September 2019 that the cause of mass deaths was measles.

“We are still not satisfied with this answer,” Pokok, the village headman, said. "As far as I know, measles will not kill so many people nowadays."

Walking into Kuala Koh village, there are rows of pale yellow brick houses built by The Orang Asli Development Department (Jakoa) in 2010. These houses...