Amid Singapore’s battle with Covid-19, another long-standing enemy seems to have been ignored: Dengue fever.
The disease is staging a resurgence across the island this year.
So far, we’ve already recorded a massive 8,000 cases in just 4.5 months.
The situation has led a minister to say that we’re in an “emergency phase”.
The shocking number was revealed in a Facebook post on Saturday (14 May) by Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Desmond Tan.
Source: Desmond Tan on Facebook
To put that in perspective, Singapore logged just 5,582 dengue cases in the whole of 2021.
We’ve now gone way beyond that figure in just 4.5 months.
The minister noted that the traditional peak dengue season is from Jun to Oct.
Since it’s now still May, that means the case number could still go higher — which is worrying, he added.
Just over two weeks ago on 28 Apr, Singapore had more than 6,000 cases, according to the National Environment Agency (NEA).
That means we added more than 2,000 in just two weeks.
That’s entirely possible since we had 854 in the first week of May and a whopping 1055 in the second week till 3pm on Friday (13 May) — that’s more than twice the number logged in the last week of Mar.
Source: NEA
If this goes on, we’ll stand to break the highest weekly case count of 1,787 set in Jul 2020.
Source: NEA
On Saturday (14 May), Mr Tan visited Woodsvale Condominium in Woodlands and told The Straits Times (ST) that Singapore is seeing a “steep increase in the number of cases by the week”.
Thus, he said we’re in an “emergency phase”.
Source: Desmond Tan on Facebook
The situation needs to be dealt with to prevent a further increase in dengue cases, he added.
Mr Tan noted that 60% of Aedes mosquito breeding was found in homes in dengue clusters.
Source: Desmond Tan on Facebook
Thus, while 70% of dengue clusters have been closed, the work continues.
Source: Desmond Tan on Facebook
That’s because “egregious cases” have been found — premises with multiple mosquito breeding habitats, as well as profuse breeding.
Image courtesy of the NEA
NEA will take strong enforcement action against these cases, he said.
That also goes for cases in public places and construction sites.
Residents are urged to cooperate with officers’ dengue checks and take action to reduce the mosquito population.
They can do so by regularly practising the Mozzie Wipeout “B-L-O-C-K” steps:
The NEA advises the public to perform these steps at least once a week.
If you’re unconcerned about the rising number of dengue cases, just imagine one of your loved ones getting it.
And just like Covid-19, dengue can also kill.
If we’re willing to wear masks to protect against Covid-19, we should likewise perform basic checks to prevent dengue from reaching our households.
After all, the pandemic has taught us that we shouldn’t be complacent when the health and safety of ourselves and people around us is concerned.
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Featured images adapted from Desmond Tan on Facebook and courtesy of the NEA.
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