The Straits Times reported 2 Jun that scientists here were stumped that uniquely Singapore strains of the dengue virus seemed to have risen here and that young adults were most hit by the fever. It noted that early results from an ongoing islandwide study showed that the strains of the virus circulating here could be evolving differently from those in other parts of the region. It quoted Dr Martin Hibberd, a dengue researcher and associate director of infectious diseases at the Genome Institute of Singapore, saying, "It's possible that almost all the strains we see now are found exclusively in Singapore". Preliminary findings of the Early Dengue (Eden) infection and outcome study suggested that young adults here - those over 21 - were more often victims of the disease than their counterparts in other Asian countries where the disease was endemic. In Indonesia and India, for example, dengue victims were much younger - children. The report added that in the region, the chance of meeting an infected Aedes mosquito carrying the virus was once every six months whereas here, because of stringent vector control, the chance of getting bitten by an infected mosquito was about once every 10 years, "a statistical rarity", according to Dr Hibberd.
How is that for a dose of "Uniquely Singapore?"
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