Experts meet in Singapore to try to curb dengue fever

Michael Nathan, a dengue expert with the World Health Organization, told delegates at the Singapore WHO Health Forum that it cost millions of dollars to treat dengue each year.

He said in 1998, 1.2 million cases of dengue were reported, out of which 3,500 people died. But, he said that actual cases are estimated “to be in the order of 51 million with approximately 15,000 deaths, mostly among young children.”

The direct cost of treating each case in Thailand 1994, when the last study was done, was dlrs 257, and its economy lost dlrs 689 for each case, said Nathan.

There is no cure or vaccine for dengue, a viral illness which causes fever, joint pains and chills. Some strains cause internal bleeding and death.

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which carry the dengue virus, can breed in pools of still water as small as a coin.

The disease is not isolated to developing nations. Earlier this month 59 cases were reported in Hawaii.

Nathan said there is a gulf between the political will and the need to implement programs to control dengue.

The only way to gain political support for vast dengue control is to document the social and economic costs of the disease, he said.

Cases of dengue have recently surged in Singapore — a wealthy Southeast Asian nation of about 4 million people. A total of 953 new cases were reported in the three months from June through August — up sharply from the 892 cases in the first six months of this year

Dengue has remained a problem in Singapore, a highly modernized country, despite spraying, public education campaigns and increased fines for those found with mosquitoes breeding on their property.

Controlling mosquitoes is difficult in Singapore, a tropical island which is regularly drenched by monsoon rains.

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