Southeast Asia is experiencing high numbers of rainy season dengue fever cases. This comes at a time when the region is still combating a devastating coronavirus pandemic that has left healthcare systems reeling and local economies in deep recession. Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne viral disease endemic in tropical and subtropical regions. Severe cases can be fatal. Just as with COVID-19, no vaccine or drug can prevent dengue. The alarming spread of dengue alongside COVID-19 can only increase pressure on fragile regional healthcare systems.
In Southeast Asia, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand are all grappling with a high seasonal dengue burden.
Singapore has seen a big spike in cases. The city-state recorded 1,793 dengue cases in the week ending 25 July 2020, the highest number of weekly cases ever recorded in Singapore. Latest data for the week ending 8 August shows only a slight improvement of 1,668 dengue cases. The National Environment Agency (NEA) expects Singapore to surpass its previous annual record of 22,170 dengue fever cases set in 2013. Amid warnings of a possible acceleration of the dengue outbreak, the government has responded with harsher penalties on households and construction sites that let mosquitos breed.
Weekly Dengue Cases in Singapore, 2016-20
In Malaysia, the situation is more in line with the country’s typical dengue cycle, and fewer dengue cases have been reported overall this year. In week 30, Malaysia suffered a total of 1,298 dengue cases for a year-to-date total of 62,625 cases as of 25 July 2020, down from the 75,913 cases reported in the same period of last year. There have been 105 deaths so far in 2020.
2019 was a bad year for Southeast Asia’s most populous country with 137,761 dengue fever infections, more than double the year before, according to Indonesia‘s Ministry of Health. The ministry reported 70,418 dengue cases and 458 disease-related deaths to 1 July this year, fewer than that in the same period in 2019, when it logged 105,222 cases and 727 deaths. The relatively low death toll is mainly due to better therapeutic standards.
Thailand's Bureau of Epidemiology reported 41,415 cases and 31 deaths in the year to 25 July, a major surge in cases over the past four weeks ( 1 ).
Thailand: Chikungunya cases top 6,000, Dengue cases top 40K Go to sourceChaiyaphum, Mae Hong Son, Rayong, Nakhon Ratchasima and Khon Kaen provinces have seen the highest incidence of the mosquito-borne viral disease. Thailand is simultaneously struggling to contain the Chikungunya virus, which is also transmitted by the bite of Aedes mosquitoes.
In the Philippines, the week of July 5-11 saw only 454 new dengue cases and three deaths reported, 97% down over the same period in 2019 (14,492) ( 2 ).
Dengue Situation Update Number 599, Western Pacific, WHOIn the year to 11 July, there were a total of 54,941 dengue cases in the Philippines with 196 deaths reported, 63% lower compared to the 146,766 cases in the same period in 2019.
Dengue versus COVID-19 cases, 2020 year to date*
Longer-term, the effects of global warming could newly expose as many as a billion people to disease-carrying mosquitoes by the end of the 21st Century. Within Southeast Asia, changing patterns of rainfall, humidity and temperature linked to climate change, are leading to longer mosquito breeding spells and shorter disease incubation ( 3 ).
Climate change and Asia’s deadly dengue fever outbreaks Go to sourceThese trends will cause dengue epidemics to become much more unpredictable in terms of their scale, and when and where they occur, with the potential to overwhelm health systems.
Long-term control or even disease elimination requires the interruption of human–vector contact through the use of bed nets, personal protection (e.g. insect repellent), and the use of insecticides.
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