MALACCA (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - A Chinese tourist, apparently fearful of contracting Zika, has lodged a police report after seeing mosquitoes in his Malaysia hotel room.

The 67-year-old tourist from Shanghai, China, who was holidaying in Malacca with his wife, claimed that he saw mosquitoes and other insects in his hotel room.

Fearful that they were at risk of being infected with the Zika virus, he then lodged a police report with the help of a local translator at the Banda Hilir station on Saturday (Sept 10).

A 32-year-old local tour guide, who wished to remain anonymous, said the tourist wanted to send a message to hoteliers so that they would not take the Zika threat lightly.

Malacca Health, Sport Development and Anti-Drugs deputy committee chairman Datuk Ng Choon Koon said hotels here should take measures to eliminate mosquitoes and other insects.

"The police report could be an eye-opener for us," he said, adding that making a report over such matter could appear bizarre to some.

Ng said the state had made relentless effort to control the breeding of Aedes mosquitoes and to prevent the spread of dengue and Zika in Malacca.

He said a total of 105,928 inspections and destruction of aedes breeding grounds had been carried out, with 339,313 fogging activities conducted state-wide this year.

Ng said 11 areas in the state had been found to be rampant with dengue.

He added that a total of 1,684 dengue cases were recorded until Sept 12 this year, a 15 per cent increase over the same period last year.

However, the number of fatalities was unchanged from the same period last year, with six deaths recorded.