The num­ber of dengue cases in Sin­ga­pore is quickly approach­ing the 6,000 mark, with over 5,800 cases reported as of 5 May in 2013.

Hous­ing estates that are not dengue hotspots are deter­mined to keep it that way. Grass­roots leader Kholyn Suarez, who is lead­ing her troop of grass­roots vol­un­teers in the fight against Aedes mos­qui­toes, is telling res­i­dents to keep watch even though Sem­bawang Divi­sion is not a dengue hotspot. Lend­ing fire­power to the effort is National Devel­op­ment Min­is­ter and Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Sem­bawang GRC, Khaw Boon Wan.

A door-to-door approach has been taken to remind peo­ple to rid their premises of con­ducive breed­ing con­di­tions for Aedes mos­qui­toes. “It’s one of the best solu­tions where we can also inform every­one what’s going on and what to do about it, espe­cially nowa­days we have a lot of dengue cases. So, one of the things maybe we can help is edu­cate and inform them,” said Kholyn Suarez, grass­roots leader from Sem­bawang Zone ‘F’ Res­i­dents’ Com­mit­tee. Res­i­dents have also been given mos­quito patches to drive away mosquitoes.

Two dengue cases have so far been reported in Sem­bawang Division’s Zone ‘F’. Res­i­dent Deen Jehabaideen said: “We have to do our part and it’s very impor­tant to let other peo­ple know, from their part, what they can do to avoid this dengue case.” Sem­bawang Division’s grass­roots lead­ers intend to cover as many of the 120-odd blocks of flats as pos­si­ble to spread the mes­sage that dengue pre­ven­tion is bet­ter than cure.

(Chan­nel NewsA­sia 5/5/2013)

Accord­ing to the lat­est fig­ures on the National Envi­ron­ment Agency’s (NEA) web­site, there were 515 cases for the week of 14 to 20 April 2013. Dur­ing the week of 7 to 13 April 2013, there were 493 cases. Four hun­dred and six cases were reported in the week of 31 March to 6 April 2013. As of 21 and 22 April 201, 75 cases were reported. For the first 16 weeks of 2013, there have been 4,850 reported cases of dengue fever.

NEA said flower pot plates and trays con­tinue to be the main breed­ing areas. The author­ity found 400 Aedes mos­quito breed­ing habi­tats in flower pot plates and trays. It also added that some plants may be breed­ing habi­tats for mos­qui­toes. Water can be trapped by dried leaves, encour­ag­ing breed­ing in just two days. Banana trees and palm trees are also poten­tial breed­ing sites. That’s because the space in between the stem and leaf may trap water after rain. But NEA said these plants are not com­monly found in homes.

Ten dengue clus­ters are now on red alert level. These are defined as high-risk areas with 10 or more reported cases. Top­ping the list is the area that includes Tampines St 12, St 21 and 22 where 123 cases have been reported so far in 2013.

Res­i­dents in the affected areas are urged to take pre­ven­tive actions to pro­tect against dengue. Those diag­nosed with dengue are encour­aged to use mos­quito nets when sleep­ing and apply­ing insect repel­lent to break the dengue trans­mis­sion chain.

(Chan­nel NewsA­sia 4/23/2013)