By
Tan Weizhen
TODAY
SINGAPORE — Warning that the dengue situation would get worse before it gets better, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan yesterday announced that the Government would roll out a raft of measures in an attempt to keep the menace at bay, but stressed that they would be useless if the community was not engaged in the fight as well.
He described the battle with dengue fever as at a “critical juncture” currently, as last week saw a record number of 820 cases. This brought the total number of cases this year to 9,421, surpassing the 8,843 in the 2007 epidemic. Over the past two weeks, two men, aged 20 and 60, have died from the disease.
“It is not good and we think it is going to be worse, and this is the current challenge facing us,” said Dr Balakrishnan, who chaired a press conference to give an update on the situation. “We all need to do our part, it would be a test of the social cohesion of our society, and it’ll be needed to deal with future epidemics.”
As Singapore enters the dengue peak season, he unveiled the Government’s action plan: More manpower to conduct checks, indoor spraying of insecticides, and insect repellents to be given out to households for free.
An estimated S$85 million has been set aside to combat dengue for the current financial year, according to the National Environment Agency (NEA). It spent S$70 million to fight dengue in the previous financial year. Over the next two months, NEA will recruit 300 more officers to boost its existing 850-strong vector control team. With the increased manpower, checks can be done faster – all premises in dengue clusters within a week, and also more preventive surveillance checks can be done in areas not classified as dengue clusters.
To bring down the number of infected adult mosquitoes, officers will step up indoor spraying of insecticides using a new type of aerosol spray to be applied in dark corners of homes. This new spray can last longer and be spread over a larger area, but residents’ permission would be sought first before it is applied.
The NEA and the Ministry of Health will also distribute 1.2 million insect repellents to all households from July to August, starting from the major cluster areas, as well as to schools when they re-open.
Minister of State for Health Dr Amy Khor, who was also at the briefing, said 160 more beds have been set aside to be used to cope with any rise in transmission. The Health Ministry had sent a circular to hospitals last week to remind them to be more careful with returning emergency department patients and to accord them higher priority, she added.
For now, the authorities are not considering heavier penalties such as increased fines for those found to be breeding mosquitos. Instead, Dr Balakrishnan urged a sense of “social responsibility” among Singaporeans to eradicate this disease, especially given that dengue transmission will probably intensify in the western and northern parts of Singapore. Currently, the majority of cases are in the east. ("Social responsibility" - here we go again. When are the ministers going to take responsibility for the lack of foresight, competence and oversight of their subordinates in the respective govt bodies responsible for such outbreaks?)
“(This disease) is still largely self inflicted,” Dr Balakrishnan said, referring to how most breeding grounds are still found in homes. “Whether you talk about dengue or the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, you are at risk if your neighbour’s health is compromised. We have to develop a social sensitivity that… my safety is in protecting the health of my neighbour.”
NEA had found that per every 100 premises checked, breeding grounds in homes have risen, as compared to other types of premises such as construction sites which have actually declined.
When asked why the situation is still worsening despite the public education efforts and a national campaign launched by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Dr Balakrishnan said: “I would say our habits are very hard to change... We have to get people to understand the risk. I think it would be much worse if we didn’t do all (the campaigns).”
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http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/dengue-battle-critical-juncture
