/ 7 August 2007

Spike in dengue fever

Dengue fever is sweeping South-East Asia in an outbreak of the mosquito-borne virus that is already threatening to become the worst in almost a decade.

Hospitals across the region are filling up and the number of deaths mounting, with no country left immune, from the richest, ultra-modern Singapore, to the poorest, such as Laos and Cambodia. The number of cases in many countries is already well above the total for 2006 and is on course to match 1998 — the worst year on record, when 1 500 died out of 350 000 infected.

In a worrying harbinger of the future, globalisation and rising prosperity in Asia’s huge cities are cited as key reasons for dengue’s growing prevalence. The Aedes aegypti mosquito that carries dengue — known as the “bone-breaker” illness because of its joint pain — multiplies in clean water, every pool, discarded plastic bag or tin can become a potential breeding ground during the rainy season.

The migration of workers in the region and rapid urbanisation are other factors.

Singapore’s building sites, full of migrant workers, have been the focus of outbreaks as mosquitoes bite infected workers and then pass the disease to others. But Aedes mosquitoes have also been found on the 50th floors of the city-state’s gleaming glass-and-steel skyscrapers.

Yet poor countries are hit hardest. World Health Organisation (WHO) figures reveal that Cambodia has suffered 25 000 cases this year, killing 300 children under 15 — three times the number for 2005.

Health experts fear that this year’s spike in dengue cases could become the norm. Dr Axel Kroeger, a WHO dengue research coordinator in Geneva, said: “We always think next year it will get better but we always find next year it gets worse. There’s a very clear upward trend.” — Â