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SINGAPORE : The number of dengue, chikungunya and malaria cases in Singapore is falling.
The National Environment Agency (NEA) said this is due to the Integrated Vector Management system (IVM), introduced by the World Health Organisation.
The system helps stakeholders decide how to allocate their resources like manpower and collaborate with other agencies to control the disease.
Preventing mosquitoes from multiplying is the key to keeping dengue cases down. And with the IVM approach, NEA said it can also keep malaria and chikungunya at bay.
Tai Ji Chong, Head of NEA's Operations Environmental Health Department, elaborated: "For the case of dengue, the trend has been going down. In the past we have seen cyclical trends of dengue where it peaks every six or seven years, but from 2006 till today, we do not see that kind of trend anymore.
"In fact, for the last two years, the trend has been going down. With the IVM system in place for dengue, we apply the same system for chikungunya when it comes in, and as a result, chikungunya did not become endemic in Singapore."
And the strategy works. Dengue fever cases have gone down from 7,000 in 2008 to 4,500 in 2009.
Similarly, the number of chikungunya cases has gone down from 720 in 2008 to 340 cases in 2009.
NEA said the downward trend has continued this year, with a total of 22 local and imported chikungunya cases so far.
Malaria cases here also went down from 29 last year to just nine cases in the first 33 weeks of this year.
But NEA cautioned that the declining trend also means that the community has a lower immunity to that particular infectious disease.
Mr Tai said: "Like all infectious diseases, whenever it is very well-controlled, the more well-controlled it is, the more susceptible the population because they have no exposure."
This is why the public has to continue to play their part in keeping dengue and other infectious diseases at bay.
The success of the IVM approach in some countries is why the World Health Organisation (WHO) hopes it can get more governments to implement the system. And WHO hopes to convince them at the 2nd Asia-Pacific Dengue Workshop, which is taking place in Singapore.
However, Dr Raman Velayudhan, a scientist from the Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases at WHO, said it will be a challenge.
He said: "We are working with member countries to really advocate for IVM, what IVM is all about. It is basically an integration of vector control methods and for judicious use of the tools.
"Essentially how we are doing it is WHO works with member countries. We have regional committees which are now adopting IVM resolutions and at a later date, we hope that we would have had some of the resolution, maybe in a couple of years' time, looking at more and more evidences as they come in about IVM.
"Financially, the problems are there. The problem is how to scale up our implementation, how are we going to go about our training, at the regional level and at the country level and making sure that IVM is really adopted at the local level, because we need the planning, the implementation to work at communities. So communities have to make the decision and how we go about capacity building."
Dr Raman added that dengue is affecting 125 countries worldwide and this year alone, there have been outbreaks in close to 50 countries.
Close to 60 experts on dengue from more than 20 countries will share concepts and strategies for dengue control and management at the nine-day workshop. - CNA/ms
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