Dengue fever puts S'pore on alert

Dengue fever puts S'pore on alert

SINGAPORE: Singapore has gone on high alert after cases of dengue fever almost doubled last year to a 10-year high, the government said, urging "an all-out war" on mosquitoes that spread the sometimes fatal disease.

Singapore, a Southeast Asian island of 4 million people, had 9,459 dengue infections in 2004, the highest since records began in the mid-1990s, and at least three people died from the illness, official statistics show.

"The National Environment Agency is urging the public to wage an all-out war on the Aedes mosquito, which causes dengue fever," an agency statement said.

It said the disease, which typically strikes during the annual rainy seasons in Singapore and neighboring Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, hit with unusual ferocity in the last three months of 2004 and worsened in January. -- Reuters