Dengue Has Killed 3 More People In The Past Week, Over 3,100 Have Been Warded
Ever feel like 2020 is a year of disease, pestilence and death?
Singapore is being plagued by 2 separate diseases so far, with Covid-19 still persisting and the worst-ever dengue outbreak on record.
The mosquito-borne disease has killed a total of 19 people so far this year, with 3 more added to the toll this week.
Dengue deaths may exceed 2019’s total
As an indication of the severity of the situation, 20 deaths from dengue were recorded in the whole of last year.
Thus, the 19 so far this year is just one short of the total for 2019, and this means it would likely exceed that number this year.
The victims so far have ranged from 49 to 92 years old, reported The Straits Times.
6th-consecutive week of more than 1,000 cases
Worse still, the number of dengue cases seems to be rising with no end in sight.
In 2014, the highest number of cases ever recorded in one week in Singapore was 891.
This year, we already broke that record in June, when we recorded 1,153 in the week from 7 Jun to 13 Jun.
According to statistics from the National Environment Agency (NEA), we then proceeded to record more than 1,000 cases every week since then, for 6 consecutive weeks.
Last week, we already logged 1,736 cases (from 12 Jul to 18 Jul).
This is also the highest weekly number so far.
Photo for illustration purposes only
Source
We’ve already recorded 277 cases so far this week — from Sunday (19 Jul) to 3pm on Monday (20 Jul).
Here’s a chart from the NEA showing the number of cases recorded in the last 6 weeks:
Number of cases likely to exceed 2013’s total
The 277 cases in the last 2 days brings the total number of cases to 18,947 so far this year.
The highest number of dengue infections Singapore has ever seen in one year was recorded in 2013 — that was a total of 22,173.
That means with 5.5 months left to 2020, we’re likely to exceed that number too, and strike a new record for this year.
Here’s an NEA chart comparing the numbers for this year against those from the last 4 years. See the red line for 2020:
More than 3,100 warded for dengue
Out of the dengue cases recorded, 17% of them have been warded in public hospitals, ST quoted the Ministry of Health (MOH) as saying.
That’s more than 3,100 patients.
What’s more, 1% of that number were warded in the Intensive Care Unit.
More active dengue clusters emerging
The situation is getting more severe as more active dengue clusters are continuing to emerge.
There are 413 of them now, and 19 of them have had more than 100 people infected, ST reported.
141 of the active clusters are high-risk clusters — that’s because 10 or more people within a 150m radius have been infected in them within 2 weeks.
The largest cluster is in the Aljunied-Geylang-Guillemard area, with 266 cases.
The 2nd-largest cluster is in the Bukit Panjang-Woodlands area, with 263 cases.
Blk 608, Senja Road has a whopping number of 33 dengue cases.
Check out the list of dengue clusters here.
Take preventive measures & stay safe
We think this doesn’t have to be emphasised again, but please take precautions against the diseases out there.
For dengue, please take preventive measures at home.
What we can do is get rid of stagnant water in common areas like flowerpots, containers and bamboo pole holders. Check out this graphic for more information:
Featured image adapted from Facebook.
