The Straits Times reported that a huge dengue outbreak is expected to happen this year in Singapore as it recorded 9,000 cases with 12 deaths so far. This could be the biggest dengue outbreak ever for the Southeast Asian nation unless collective community action is taken, warns the National Environment Agency (NEA).
According to the agency, Singapore's weekly cases are expected to exceed the historical high of 891. Last week, it recorded 735 cases - the highest in more than 50 years. The country has reported another 291 infected people since Sunday.
Can Become the Biggest Outbreak
Singapore has recorded 9,261 infections since 3 pm on Tuesday, far more than double the number last year for the same period. The NEA is concerned that this year's numbers could exceed the 15,998 cases and 20 deaths in 2019 or the 22,170 cases reported in 2013.
The country has already recorded 12 deaths so far, with the five of them died from dengue in the past two months. The Ministry of Health said that the patients who died after getting the mosquito-borne disease were aged between 56 and 80 years old. Ten of them worked and lived in active dengue areas.
To date, Singapore has 176 active dengue clusters. Woodleigh has recorded 181 infections making it the largest dengue cluster.
NEA estimates that the cases will continue to rise every week, and more dengue clusters will form in the coming days to months due to several factors that contributed to the huge outbreak of dengue infections this year.
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Factors Contributing to This Year's Dengue Outbreak
One of the factors contributing to this year's dengue outbreak is the change in the dominant dengue serotype to DenV-3. This was not dominant 30 years ago, which means that only a few people have immunity to this type of dengue.
Presently, there are four serotypes recorded, and humans are only immune to the type that they were exposed to.
The second factor is that in Singapore, dengue is most common on warmer months from May to September, allowing mosquitoes to breed quickly.
Third, since the lockdown, more people are staying at home, which means that the Aedes aegypti mosquitos have more blood meals, especially in residential areas where mosquitos' concentration is high, according to NEA.
This was agreed by Professor Ooi Eng Eong, the deputy director of the Emerging Infectious Diseases Programme at Duke-NUS Medical School.
"Aedes mosquitoes are active in seeking blood meal during the daytime, and more time spent at home instead of at work during the recent circuit breaker period could have led to increased rates of infection," Professor Ooi Eng Eong said.
NEA supported this statement and said that a five-fold increase in Aedes aegypti larvae was detected in homes and common corridors in residential areas during the lockdown period compared to the months before it was implemented.
NEA has been trying to reduce the mosquitoes' population by releasing sterile male mosquitos at critical areas across the country so that females will not be able to have offspring even after mating with the bioengineered male mosquito.
The agency urges the citizens of Singapore to do their part in preventing the breeding of mosquitos. They have already developed a Check and Protect checklist, available for download that marks common mosquito breeding sites.
