Beware them mosquitoes — the National Environment Agency (NEA) has warned that it’s likely that dengue cases will spike up as the weather starts to heat up into the usual Singapore sweat-staining standards.
The warmer-than-usual weather supports faster breeding and maturation cycles of mosquitoes, which explain the increase in the Aedes mosquito population. The incubation periods for the dengue virus are also reduced with the hotter weather too.
NEA’s latest figures have shown a total of 554 reported cases just the week ending Jan 9, Channel NewsAsia reports, which was said to be 96 more than the previous week.
“Together with the Inter-Agency Dengue Task Force, as well as all Town Councils, we will also continue our efforts to rid public areas and housing estates of potential mosquito breeding habitats,” NEA assured.
“NEA is working with stakeholders to implement source reduction to bring down the number of breeding habitats, and would like to urge premises owners to allow our officers to access their premises for inspection for the removal of mosquito breeding as well as spraying to kill adult mosquitoes.”
