Dengue in Singapore, the emergency linked to a new dominant strain and climate change – breaking latest news

Singapore is located in
milk dengue emergency
an infectious disease transmitted by Aedes mosquito bite and also known as bone-breaking fever for the intense pain it causes. As of June 1, when the dengue peak season traditionally begins, the Southeast Asian city was already recording 11 thousand cases of dengue feverwell beyond the 5,258 reported in 2021. Among the explanations proposed by the experts and reported by the CNN is climate change: the sub tropical climate breeding ground for Aedes mosquitoes that transmit the virus. Virus that could spread around the world given the global climate change that is affecting the world. In a nutshell, some scientists think that dengue outbreaks will become more and more frequent in the coming years due to extreme weather conditions with frequent showers and humid climate.

Endemic in 100 countries and increasingly widespread

About 10% of cases require hospitalization – a spokesman for the Singapore Ministry of Health explained to CNN – and although hospitalizations due to the recent wave have increased, they have remained manageable at the moment. The World Health Organization reports that dengue is a endemic disease in over 100 countries. In the 2019 the world recorded 5.2 million cases with hundreds of deaths in the Philippines, in Bangladesh, where hospitals were overwhelmed and in Afghanistan, where the disease first appeared. Over the past 50 years, cases have increased by 30 times and not only is the number of cases increasing as the disease spreads to new areas of the world, but explosive outbreaks are occurring, summarizes the WHO. The worst dengue outbreak in Singapore’s history was recorded in 2020, with 35,315 cases and 28 deaths.

The four variants

Dengue an infectious disease caused by four variants of the same virus that it is transmitted through mosquito bites which in turn have bitten an infected person. The most effective mosquito in transmission is Aedes aegypti, typical of tropical regions (in Italy it does not exist) but also the tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) can contribute to the infection, albeit in a less effective way. Unfortunately, having contracted dengue protects the person only against the virus that caused it but not against the other three viral types.

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A little less than a week after the sting, symptoms may appear: high fever, severe headache, body aches, sharp headaches, nausea, vomiting. In extreme cases, breathing difficulties and multi-organ failure, in some cases fatal, can occur. Dengue has a very low mortality rate, about 1% of cases, which rises to 40% when the disease complicates in the hemorrhagic form. In most cases, however, the disease is asymptomatic, at least with the first infection while a second infection can trigger heavy immune reactions that can lead to hemorrhages. There is no cure but only a vaccine that seems effective only in those who have already had a previous infection, while it would lead to an increased risk of serious illness in those who have never contracted the virus. Other vaccines are being studied.

In Italy

In Italy dozens of cases of Dengue are reported every year, but in general they are infections contracted abroad: they affect travelers returning from Latin America, South East Asia and Africa, where this infection is endemic (but not even the United States, in particular the Southern States). It is true that the virus generally transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which does not exist in Italy (in Europe it is present only on the island of Madeira and in an area of ​​the Black Sea). But, exceptionally, it could also be carried by another vector, its “cousin”, the Aedes albopictus (better known as the “tiger mosquito”), also widespread in our country.

The role of climate change

The outbreak in Singapore has also been exacerbated by recent extreme weather conditions, and this emergency could be a harbinger of what will happen elsewhere, as more and more countries are experiencing prolonged periods of heat and thunderstorms that help to spread both mosquitoes and the virus, the scholars explained.

The wave of dengue in Singapore resulted from multiple factors such as the recent hot and humid weather it’s a new dominant viral strainhe has declared Ruklanthi de Alwis, senior researcher at Duke-NUS Medical School and an expert in emerging infectious diseases. But climate change, he said, could make things worse. Studies of past predictive models have shown that global warming due to climate change will eventually expand geographic areas (where mosquitoes thrive) as well as the length of dengue transmission seasons, de Alwis said. Climate change is expanding the geographical areas suitable for hosting Aedes aegypti, which still cannot survive the Italian winters but with the tropicalization of the climate it cannot be excluded that it can happen.

We will not be able to eradicate dengue because extreme climatic conditions create the perfect conditions for mosquitoes to reproduce, said the climate scientist. Winston Chow of the College of Integrative Studies of Singapore Management University. As climate change worsens and the planet warms, mosquito-borne diseases such as Zika, chikungunya and dengue are likely to continue to spread and have an ever-increasing impact on human health and well-being.