Dengue risk amid virus pandemic

Experts fear alarming spike in infections may be driven by lockdown

GettinG people to hunker down at home has helped stem the coronavirus pandemic, but in parts of Southeast Asia, it’s spurred another potentially deadly disease: dengue.

Cases of the mosquito-borne viral illness has skyrocketed in the tropical region just as the usual denguespreading season begins.

Singapore reported an average of 165 cases a day in the week through June 13, a record which authorities said may herald the largest dengue outbreak in the city-state’s history.

the insect species is widespread in South-east Asia and thrives in sources of stagnant water in and around dwellings.

People have spent more time in their homes to reduce transmission of Covid-19, and a World Health Organisation spokesperson said the movement restrictions may be preventing communities from cleaning up potential mosquito-breeding sites in the neighbourhood.

“Lockdowns are placing more people at home than they normally would,” said Cameron Simmons, director of the institute of VectorBorne Disease at Melbourne’s Monash University, who studied dengue in Vietnam.

“While no evidence has emerged proving a direct link, lockdowns could potentially have created an environment where mosquitoes are interacting more with the population than they would otherwise.”

Movement curbs probably worsened the dengue outbreak, said Siti nadia tarmizi, the director for vector-borne and zoonotic disease at indonesia’s health ministry.

As of Wednesday, the country has recorded some 64,251 dengue cases in 2020, almost 60% more than at the same time last year.

Bali has almost 9,000 infections. in Malaysia, weekly cases have climbed to 1,927, according to the Health Ministry, which expects the current wave to last until September.

A longer than expected rainy season in the region is contributing to the increase in cases.

Singapore had 211 active dengue clusters as of June 15 and at least 11,166 people are known to have caught the virus from Jan 1 to June 15, according to data from the national environment Agency.

the traditional dengue peak season could last a few months, from June to October, “thus immediate action must be taken to break disease transmission,” the agency said.

the challenge is to mobilise the population to do more to combat the spread of dengue and increase surveillance, said Ooi eng eong, deputy director for the programme in emerging infectious diseases at Singapore’s Duke-nUS Medical School.

However, he added that any dengue outbreak in the region should still be treated as a major health concern.

“Covid-19 has shown us that infectious diseases do not respect borders, and how reliant economies are on the global supply chain, much of which originates in the tropics,” he said.