Voodoo Vince

Mozzie-borne disease spreads here for first time
By Lee Hui Chieh


Chikungunya fever is transmitted in the same way as dengue fever by the same mosquito vector (Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus). -- ST PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHAN

SIX people here have come down with a mosquito-borne, dengue-like illness which seems to have spread here for the first time.

Concerned that the disease, chikungunya, could take root here like dengue, health and environment officials have swung into action to enssure it does not do so.

They are checking everyone who lives or works within a 150m radius of the six cases.

Chikungunya first appeared here in 2006, but all cases since then - including the 10 last year - were imported ones.

The six victims in this outbreak are all foreign nationals in their 20s and 30s from Bangladesh and India. Four have already recovered; the rest were admitted to the Communicable Disease Centre (CDC) on Wednesday.

Like the dengue virus, the chikungunya virus is spread by the Aedes mosquito. It brings on symptoms similar to dengue, such as fever, joint pains, chills, and nausea.

Symptoms usually last up to 10 days, though the joint pains may last weeks or even months. No treatment is available. The disease usually runs its course and goes away on its own.

Though rarely fatal, it has claimed lives in India and Reunion Island.

The death toll shows that chikungunya is not something that can be dismissed, said the CDC's clinical director, Associate Professor Leo Yee Sin.

The Health Ministry is still investigating how the outbreak here began. It was notified on Monday by a general practitioner that one of his patients, a 27-year-old man from Bangladesh, had tested positive for the chikungunya virus.

The man, ill since Sunday, had gone to the doctor the next day. He has not left Singapore since arriving here in 2005, and with the incubation period of the virus at one week, health officials realised he probably contracted it here.

They fanned out to screen and collect blood samples from people in Clive Street, next to Tekka Mall in Serangoon, where the man lives.

Five others, who also have not been out of the country in the past month, were found to have been infected, and taken to the CDC for checks.

Read the full report in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.

http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2...ry_197209.html

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People don't plan to fail... They fail to plan.

Voodoo Vince

6 confirmed cases of chikungunya fever in Singapore
By Lynda Hong, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 17 January 2008 2141 hrs

SINGAPORE: There are currently six confirmed cases of chikungunya fever – four of the patients have already been discharged, while two are still in hospital.


Communicable Disease Centre (CDC)

38-year-old G Vidwasekar, an Indian national from Tamil Nadu, had to be admitted to Tan Tock Seng Hospital's Communicable Disease Centre on Wednesday.

Just a day earlier, he had joined the Indian Harvest Festival celebrations, known as Pongal.

As he was returning to his hostel in Clive Street – the same living quarters as the first chikungunya victim – he experienced symptoms of the fever.

He said: "I got off the bus, but couldn't walk. My joints started to ache, then I bought panadol, ate it, had some sleep and I felt better after that."

Tan Tock Seng Hospital is making sure that patients get a good rest. They are also given medication to reduce pain as there is currently no specific treatment for chikungunya fever.

The National Environment Agency's Environment Health Institute has taken blood tests of 11 people in the same living quarters as Mr Vidwasekar.


- CNA/so

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stori...323243/1/.html

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People don't plan to fail... They fail to plan.

stevewonder

I think the reason why the disease only discover first in 2006 in S'pore is that NEA, MOH and a Singapore Immunity Network start to test the virus in patients suffering from fever. This virus has apparently established itself locally and result in local transmission in this bangladesh worker as reported. So The virus with its incubation of one week, plus don't know how long before he seek treatment and the time for lab diagnosis mean that it could be up to a month that the fellow is carrying this virus, walking around in Singapore with the Aedes mosqutio present everywhere, and may have the chance of spreading the virus outside of Clive street area. I am not surprised that this Chikungunya virus would become endemic like dengue virus because the Aedes mosquito is everywhere and most doctor wouldn't check for it until this news come to light and suddenly more cases starts coming in due to this awareness. The Aedes mosquito flight range can actually be up to 700m according to NEA own research in its EHI lab, so the 150m radius may not be enough to stem the outbreak. So Chikungunya fever could be the newly emerging disease that would dominate the news in 2008 I suspect for quite some time to come giving the difficulty to control its vector.

The Epidemiological investigation by MOH is not effective in combating Arbovirus infection such as dengue and this new virus because it is a fire fighting approach ie searching for the Aedes mosquito and destroying them arround the vaccinity of the cases. This approach assume that the cases are static in one location and Aedes mosquitoes in that vaccinity results in the outbreak. But common sense tell us that people move around and spread this virus to other area where Aedes mosquitoes are presence which is everywhere in Singapore.

Conclusion- Big trouble ahead caused by this virus in Singapore.

T-Rex

Must kill mosquitoes or it will wipe out people.

lai

By Amy Tan and Lee Hui Chieh
TWO more persons have come down with the mosquito-borne, dengue-like illness called chikungunya. They were hospitalised on Thursday.
This brings the total number of those who were infected to eight, of whom four have been admitted to the Communicable Disease Centre (CDC).

All the eight were staying within the same row of shophouses on Clive Street.

As they do not have a history of recent travel, it is highly likely that they acquired the infection locally, said the Ministry of Health in statement on Friday.

This is the first outbreak of chikungunya in Singapore.

Since the disease first surfaced here in 2006, all 13 previous cases had been imported ones. Patients have symptoms similar to dengue, such as such as fever, joint pains, chills and nausea, which usually last three to 10 days.

There is no cure for the illness, but it usually goes away on its own, and rarely results in death.

The Health Ministry is still investigating how the outbreak began. But it was most probably sparked off by an imported case - someone who was infected while overseas, and fell sick here, said Dr Lyn James, director of MOH's communicable diseases division.

The disease is spread by the Aedes mosquito, and not from human to human.

So it was likely that the first person who contracted the virus overseas was bitten by mosquitoes here, which in turn became infected, and then spread the virus by biting other people, she said.

Since Jan 14, the Health Ministry, together with National Environment Agency (NEA)'s Environmental Health Institute, has screened close to 500 people living or working in the Clive Street area. Epidemiological investigations are still ongoing and screening efforts will continue over the next few days.

NEA has inspected a total of 1,879 premises in the Clive Street area. A total of 25 indoor breeding and 10 outdoor breeding sites were detected and destroyed.

Residents and premise owners are advised to check their premises daily to remove any stagnant water that may breed mosquitoes.

Persons who have been in the Clive Street area recently and have developed a fever are advised to consult their doctors.

Persons infected with chikungunya fever should be isolated from further mosquitoes bites (by staying indoors and sleeping under a mosquito net during the first few days of illness) to reduce the risk of further transmission of the virus.

http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2...ry_197604.html

stevewonder

Dr Lynn James comment may not be entirely true. This disease is not a legally notifiable disease in the infectious disease act like dengue. So there was no way of tellind when this disease acutally started to appear. The reason why the disease first surfaced was because the MOH and Singapore Immunity network start testing for this virus in 2006 on an ad hoc basis. It could be that there is a low level of endemicity that was not detected due to this use of lab surveillance rather than the active surveillance in dengue(a legally notifable disease). The problem is that without knowledge of the index case that trigger this outbreak, MOH will of course blame it on some unknown imported case rather than admit that its surveillance system failed to pick up locally transmitted case(s) even prior to this outbreak due to the imperfectness of this system. My biggest bet is thus that there is already an endemicity of this disease in the population albeit at a low level and more cases will start to appear outside of Clive St. This is something akin to how dengue cases in the early year which were mainly imported and started to become endemic as it is now.

CaRe

Need to keep places clean and to check for stagent water. Breeding mosquitoes matters to life and death.

Voodoo Vince

Yaacob: Take steps to prevent spread of virus
By Leung Wai Leng


'We are confident that given the current level of effort that we've put in place, we can get this under control,' said Dr Yaacob (above). -- ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN

AUTHORITIES are stepping up efforts to destroy mosquito breeding grounds in Little India in a bid to prevent a new, dengue-like disease from securing a foothold here.

Workers are 'doing whatever they need to do' to remove pools of stagnant water in the wake of an outbreak of Chikununya fever, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim said on Sunday.

'We already have a dengue challenge, we do not want another challenge on the public health front. So, we want to try and contain this as soon as possible.'

Eight people have tested positive for Chikununya since last Monday. All the cases were reported around the Clive Street area in the heart of Little India.

The virus, which is endemic in neighbouring countries like Indonesia, is spread by the Aedes mosquito.

It is rarely fatal, although its symptoms are similar to those of dengue, such as joint pain, chills and nausea.

The National Environment Agency is currently working with medical authorities and property owners in Little India to ensure the area is kept free of standing water, said Dr Yaacob.

'We are confident that given the current level of effort that we've put in place, we can get this under control.'

No new cases have surfaced in the last two days.

Health officials learned important lessons in the dengue outbreak of 2005, Singapore's worst, said Dr Yaccob.

The country's procedures for containing mosquito-borne illnesses are 'working very, very well', he said.

The minister asked residents across the island to check their households for potential breeding sites.

'If Singaporeans keep their place clean and free of stagnant water, we will not have this problem,' he said.

He also said more measures to combat the spread of the Chikungunya virus will be discussed in Parliament this year.

The Ministry of Health was first notified of Chikununya by a general practitioner on Jan 14 when a 27-year-old Bangladeshi patient tested positive for the disease.


http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2...ry_198217.html

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People don't plan to fail... They fail to plan.

Miss QQ

Well... Each of us needs to play our part in not breeding mosquitoes at our place...

Life is full of unexpected surprises

Mel Lee

You can do your part by pledging in the "Crush Mozzies" campaign in Stomp.

http://www.stomp.com.sg/Mozzies/crush_mozzies.html

Voodoo Vince

Efforts to stop virus stepped up; no new cases

THE authorities are stepping up efforts to destroy mosquito breeding grounds in Little India in a bid to prevent a new, dengue-like disease from securing a foothold here.

Workers are 'doing whatever they need to do' to remove pools of stagnant water in the wake of an outbreak of chikungunya fever, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim said yesterday.

'We already have a dengue challenge. We do not want another challenge on the public health front. So, we want to try and contain this as soon as possible,' he said.

Eight people have tested positive for chikungunya since last Monday. All the cases were reported around the Clive Street area in the heart of Little India.

No new cases have surfaced in the past two days.

The virus, which is endemic in neighbouring countries like Indonesia, is spread by the Aedes mosquito.

It is rarely fatal, although its symptoms are similar to those of dengue, such as joint pain, chills and nausea.

The National Environment Agency is currently working with medical authorities and property owners in Little India to ensure the area is kept free of standing water, said Dr Yaacob.

'We are confident that, given the current level of effort we've put in place, we can get this under control.'

Health officials learnt important lessons in the dengue outbreak of 2005, Singapore's worst, said Dr Yaacob.

Procedures to contain mosquito-borne illnesses are 'working very, very well,' he said.

Dr Yaacob asked residents across the island to check their households for potential breeding sites.

'If Singaporeans keep their place clean and free of stagnant water, we will not have this problem,' he said.

He also said more measures to combat the spread of the chikungunya virus will be discussed in Parliament this year.

The Ministry of Health was first notified of chikungunya by a general practitioner last Monday when a 27-year-old Bangladeshi patient tested positive for the disease.

http://www.straitstimes.com/Free/Sto...ry_198243.html

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People don't plan to fail... They fail to plan.

Voodoo Vince

I rather do my part by buying more Bygone Spray.

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People don't plan to fail... They fail to plan.

RedParis