Singapore reports nearly 12,000 dengue cases this year

Authorities say currently there are 35 dengue clusters in Singapore including seven high-risk clusters.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) in Singapore said on Tuesday that nearly 12,000 dengue cases have been reported this year so far.

About 176 dengue cases were reported in the week ending September 24 whereas 174 cases were reported in the previous week.

25 new virus cases were reported between September 25 and 3pm on September 26.

NEA said since the beginning of the year, a total of 11,924 dengue cases have been reported in Singapore, while last year the overall total was 11,286.

Seven people have already died of the virus so far but in 2015 four people were on the fatality list.

The authorities said at present there are 35 dengue clusters in Singapore including seven clusters which have been classified as high-risk. Last week there were 40 dengue clusters.

The area around Yishun Avenue 4 and Yishun Street 61 has the biggest cluster, from where 56 cases are reported. In the past fortnight, seven cases were reported from that cluster.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) and NEA warned that the number of dengue cases in Singapore may exceed 30,000 this year, higher than the record of 22,170 reported in 2013.

Singapore also reported its first case of locally transmitted Zika virus case late in August. Since then a total of 393 cases have been confirmed.

In 1947, Zika, a mosquito-borne virus was first identified in Uganda. It can be passed from a pregnant woman to her unborn baby.

Zika virus can cause birth defects and can also result in microcephaly in which the baby's head is smaller than expected. At present, there is no vaccine for the virus.

In cases of adults, Zika infections have been linked to a rare neurological syndrome known as Guillain-Barre and other neurological disorders as well.

NEA said the precaution methods are quite similar to its approach to dengue cases.

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