Be on high alert against dengue: Vivian Balakrishnan
Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan has called for everyone to be on "high alert" for a potential dengue epidemic and to play their part in the fight against the spread of the disease.
Last week, Singapore registered its highest weekly number of dengue cases in four years, when 227 people came down with the illness.
It was also the third consecutive week that the number of cases had gone beyond the epidemic threshold of 191 cases.
This is the time of the year when the number of dengue cases increase as Singapore grows hotter. As of Tuesday, there were 31 active clusters, with five clusters having more than 10 cases.
"This means that there is a high possibility that there will be a rapid spread of dengue, if we do not act immediately to contain the situation," said Dr Balakrishnan, writing in his blog.
He pointed to two factors that must be present for a full blown epidemic. There must be infected people with the dengue virus in their blood and mosquitoes then transmit the infection by biting other people after biting those infected.
"If these people are subsequently bitten by other mosquitoes, then a chain of infection occurs," he cautioned. "If there are enough infected people and mosquitoes in any given area, a critical mass of infection will lead to an exploding chain reaction."
He called on those who have a fever or suspect they have dengue to seek medical attention and use insect repellent.
"It is very important to decrease the population of mosquitoes in your neighbourhood by eliminating breeding sites," added Dr Balakrishnan, noting that 6,011 breeding sites were found in the first half of this year, compared to 2,741 from the same period in 2005.
He asked residents to cooperate with the National Environment Agency officers, who will visit more than 100,000 homes over the next four months to search and destroy all breeding sites.
"Everyone must be on high alert and everyone has a part to play in our fight against dengue, to keep our families, our neighbours and our friends safe from infection," said Dr Balakrishnan.
For more information please check the NEA website or http://www.dengue.gov.sg
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