Dengue cases on the rise - more expected this week

DENGUE fever cases have climbed, with a record 89 cases reported for the first week of this month, but there is no cause for alarm.

The projection is that there may be 100 or more cases this week.

Last month, the week from March 18 to 24 yielded 88 cases, just second to the 89 peak for the year during the first week of this month.

However, the last week of March saw a dip to 62 cases.

According to the Ministry of Health's guidelines, these figures fall short of the 'warning level', which is triggered at 256 incidents per week. An epidemic occurs when the figure is as high as 378 cases.

This year's cumulative figure is a total of 818 cases.

On Sunday, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim spoke about ongoing anti-dengue measures.

'We've stepped up the Intensive Source Reduction Exercise (ISRE), with the hot season coming in,' he said at a dialogue at Tampines Central Community Club.

ISRE, which took effect two weeks ago, involves the National Environment Agency (NEA) combining efforts with other agencies to comb common breeding areas such as corridors and carparks.

They are NEA's main line of defence in a bid to prevent a possible resurgence of dengue, reminiscent of 2005's epidemic outbreak.

At the height of the 41/2-month- long epidemic two years ago, 714 cases were recorded within a week. In that year, 12,700 Singaporeans were hit by the disease, with 19 fatalities.

Dengue is transmitted by infected Aedes mosquitoes.

In 2005, the strain of dengue, Dengue-1, was the main culprit.

This year, however, Dengue-2 may account for the spike as a change in type of dengue means that fewer people are immune to it.

Areas classified as 'active clusters' for breeding mosquitoes are Serangoon Road, Race Course Road, Upper Changi Road North, Lorong 40 Geylang, Jalan Kukoh, Lorong 20 Geylang, Geylang Road, Serangoon North Avenue 4, Hougang Avenue 8, and Lorongs 8 and 7 of Realty Park.

The fight against dengue is a combined effort, said Dr Yaacob.

'We need the support of Singaporeans...If everyone does his part, we are confident of keeping the numbers down,' he stressed.