It's all your fault, Mr. Aedes!
The past month has seen an astonishing, meteoric rise in cases of dengue outbreaks in our garden city - an island reputed for its spectacular record of cleanliness and rigorous resilience to jeopardous diseases. Up till now, more than 150 people here have been diagnosed with dengue fever. The death toll has also ascended to 11, the latest casualty of the Aedes demon (see picture below) being of perfect health prior to his demise. For a list of dengue hotspots, click here. A peek at our neighbors up north revealed even more widespread destruction by this terrorizing species. The tragic news of a Malaysian woman, who had been expecting twins, conceding her life (and two more) to a sting sent a chill down my spine.
This saga brought back traumatic memories of the deadly SARS outbreak two years ago. Indeed, we can draw similarities between the two outbreaks: quarantine, containment, etc. But essentially, we need to ask ourselves if Singapore has an adequately robust contingency model to engage in such virus warfares. Does the existing health care infrastructure suffice in mitigating the medical and reputational risks besetting the nation? Do we need to improvise on certain areas? I think it's time we should come together as a nation to do whatever we can to support the families of the dengue victims and the Government in their relentless efforts to attempt to salvage the declining situation.
Last week, I was down with influenza. It was downright depressing for me, as I was inflicted with high fever that wouldn't seem to subside for a large part of the week. I really thank God that I was not diagnosed as a dengue victim. I also like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my family and June, for their care and prayers respectively during my illness.
posted by draco_malfoy!!!! @ 11:55 PM
3 Comments:
Yep, pretty melancholic to perceive this new outburst of 'calmity'. First was the 911 incident; then all the bombings by Al-Qaeda's groups, SARS, Thai bombings, London bombings... etc... I think its a sign... yet uncertain of the reasons for such tragedies. A domino effect that emerged after 'actual sins' by mankinds? Keke...
Perhaps we should trail along the unremitting and stringent practices persisted by Hong Kong's government. They have diminutive or no cases on Dengue for a protracted period of time. Because any household caught inducing assistance to the breeding of Aedes 'mozzy' will be fined or strictly dealt with.
Anyhow, may this outbreak fades and vanishes as swiftly as possible.
Actually I wonder why there's this sudden outbreak of deaths due to Aedes mosquitoes. I thought people are more educated about preventing the breeding of the mosquitoes these days. o_O
wilz,
Not to mention hurricanes Katrina and Rita. :-P Of the tragedies that you had listed, it seems that only SARS is not human-inflicted. Back to the dengue episode, I guess it all boils down to the coagulation of individual efforts to achieve collective success in lowering the ceiling of damages by the Aedes mosquito. Besides, it has been reported in the news that the natural vegetations inherently provide a fertile breeding ground for mosquitoes. This is something non-trivial to deal with.
winyael,
Education is a preventive measure, but it provides neither deterrence nor discourse in solving the problem. Mass apathy to proper hygiene would override any form of education in this area.
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