Singapore Health Crisis: 9000 Dengue Victims

Singapore Esplanade via Earth Google

I find it just amazing that hyper-clean and hyper-paranoid Singapore has reported over 9000 dengue cases this year alone, and that about the same number were reported last year. Dengue fever, spread by mosquitoes, is generally associated with impoverished countries and not a wealthy first-world nation such as Singapore.

If the government would quit bothering local bloggers, political documentary film makers, and protest groups of less than four people, they might have enough spare money to actually solve this health problem.

Dengue plunges S’pore into health crisis
AFP
SINGAPORE
Sept 11, 2005

A dengue fever outbreak has plunged Singapore into its worst health crisis since the 2003 SARS epidemic, forcing officials to speed up a campaign against the spread of the mosquito-borne disease.

Public hospitals in the modern city-state better known for its cleanliness are delaying non-urgent operations to cope with an outbreak that has killed eight and infected over 9,000 of Singapore's 4.2 million people this year. These could soon surpass the record 9,459 cases and eight deaths from dengue last year, causing public alarm despite the fact that the debilitating viral disease is an endemic, year-round problem.

By one estimate over 100 new cases per day are now being reported, and since there is no dengue vaccine mosquito eradication is the only solution. Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan has urged Singaporeans to postpone breast enlargement and other forms of non-critical surgery to ease the load on public hospitals in Singapore.

The last time non-urgent forms of surgery were delayed here was during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) regional health crisis in 2003 which killed 33 Singaporeans and slowed down the travel-dependent economy.

Khaw has called for a "SARS approach" to the dengue problem-a no-compromise campaign to cut the disease transmission chain. A government hotline will be set up to take calls about possible "hotspots" of mosquito breeding after Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong called the situation "worrying" and urged the entire population to help. Citizens, expatriates and health experts are wondering how one of Asia's richest and most sanitation-conscious countries could suffer an outbreak normally associated with wretchedly poor nations.

The Sunday Times newspaper in an editorial titled "The Mystery of Dengue" said "Singaporeans who take their salubrious conditions as a given are rightly offended at the affront to their dignity" caused by the outbreak.

"It is hard to understand because in the past, Singapore has had a very sophisticated dengue surveillance and prevention system," said Dr Kevin Palmer, a dengue expert with the World Health Organization (WHO) regional office in Manila

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