2005 dengue outbreak in Singapore

[3] The outbreak peaked in the months of September and October, when it caused hospitals to cancel some elective surgery due to the need to allocate more beds for dengue patients.

[citation needed] Singapore's health-care system is helping to maintain a low fatality rate at 0.2% (2005), which is lower than Southeast Asia's regional average of 0.8% in 2004, according to the World Health Organization.

[5] In January 2006, Environment and Water Resources Minister Yaacob Ibrahim declared the dengue outbreak is under control with average 84 cases weekly compared to a peak of more than 700.

[citation needed] Singapore launched a number of measures to contain the dengue outbreak, including public awareness campaigns and regular fogging with insecticides.

4,200 volunteers, 970 environmental control officers hired by construction sites, 350 so-called "mozzie busters" made up of girl guides and scouts, have participated in the preventive efforts.

[citation needed] The Ministry of Health stepped up its monitoring of common mosquito breeding sites and launched an online map listing "hotspots" for the insects.

[citation needed] On 10 September, National Environment Agency started collecting blood samples from residents of Sims Avenue, a dengue hotspot, to help track the infection.

[citation needed] Dr Kevin Palmer, World Health Organization's regional adviser for mosquito-borne diseases, said that it is important for ordinary residents to play their part.

[citation needed] Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim informed Parliament that NEA officers with volunteers would conduct weekend blitz campaigns over six weeks, covering all estates, to destroy mosquito-breeding sites.

[11] On the weekend of 17–18 September, more than 700 officers and volunteers launched a house-to-house campaign to remove breeding sites at four neighbourhoods, in what Minister Mah Bow Tan described as "sort of a carpet-combing exercise".

[citation needed] In this "search-and-destroy" operation, mosquito-fighting "commandos" combed the streets, checked the drains, looked at the bins and the roof structures at all estates to seek and destroy breeding sites.

[11] In the following weekend, the blitz was continued and covered five other areas such as Toa Payoh/Bishan, Tampines, Choa Chu Kang, Bedok and Boon Lay/Jurong, and 220 breeding sites were found and destroyed.

[citation needed] In July 2005, a Singapore life science start-up company Veredus Laboratories launched a DNA- and RNA-based diagnostic kits for dengue, avian influenza and malaria.

[18] Another Singapore company Attogenix Biosystems has also developed a biochip called AttoChip which has successfully undergone an independent clinical trial conducted by Tan Tock Seng Hospital and is 98 percent accurate.