Really worried about dengue fever

[mrst3030]

I am just about to sign on the dotted line to move to Singapore and am just now seeing how prevalent dengue fever is out there. I am particularly worried about my 3 year old catching this, to the extent I am considering not making the move.

Can anyone shed any light on whether this a genuine reason to stay put and not move to Singapore. How are other parents managing this concern?

[x9200]

No, it's not. The only time I was worrying about Dengue was when my wife was pregnant and we lived very close to a huge Dengue cluster. The reason I was worried because she was also a magnet to any mosquitos. Only that time I installed nets in the windows and had mosquito repellent vaporisers running round the clock. Nothing happened despite a few bites. Nothing happened in our 15y stay here. We have a 5yo boy. He inherited that mosquito magnetism after my wife. The only precaution we exercise, we spray him with the off repellent or use the repellent (citronella based) stickers when going out in the area where mosquitos may be expected or into a known Dengue clusters. You can check the clusters locations here:
http://www.dengue.gov.sg/subject.asp?id=74

Really, stop worrying. You worry too much. You should be excited coming to Singapore and you are finding one worry after another.

[mrst3030]

Thank you so much for the reassurance. I am indeed worrying rather a lot!

[x9200]

You have higher chance to sustain injury in a road traffic accident than contract Dengue.

[Max Headroom]

We got a mosquito curtain a couple of months back, because our door is always open for the sea breeze that blows here. Now, not that it's been peer-reviewed, but ever since, we've nary seen a mozzie, let alone been bitten by one.

Mosquito curtains come in two types: the garishly-colored plastic ones and the type made of more inconspicuous string. We got the latter and it seems to work whilst still allowing the breeze to pass through. In fact, it works so well, we've done away with all our anti-mosquito WMD.

[sundaymorningstaple]

You have higher chance to sustain injury in a road traffic accident than contract Dengue.

Somebody ought to have told my Brother-in-Law that. He recently got out of SGH after having his 2nd bout with Dengue (the 1st time around 12 years ago). Oh, he's been driving commercially since his ROD from the military some 30 years ago. Moving company, tour buses, etc. (no accidents)



It depends on what kind of neighbours you have (re: keeping water clean or non-existent) I've seen enough clusters around this island that sometimes it's hard to avoid it. Just look at the numbers over the past 30 months, especially since the beginning of this year.

http://www.nea.gov.sg/corporate-functio ... 00-in-2016

[x9200]

Another way to minimize contact chances with the mosquitoes (and some other, more crawling types of insects) is to chose to live on a high floor. We have some mosquitoes around the swimming pools, but in 3 years I don't recall a single encounter in our apartment (25th floor). The windows are left open 24/7 (at least some of them) and my son was bitten only once or twice with the bit marks resembling these of mosquitoes.

[x9200]

You have higher chance to sustain injury in a road traffic accident than contract Dengue.

Somebody ought to have told my Brother-in-Law that. He recently got out of SGH after having his 2nd bout with Dengue (the 1st time around 12 years ago). Oh, he's been driving commercially since his ROD from the military some 30 years ago. Moving company, tour buses, etc. (no accidents)



It depends on what kind of neighbours you have (re: keeping water clean or non-existent) I've seen enough clusters around this island that sometimes it's hard to avoid it. Just look at the numbers over the past 30 months, especially since the beginning of this year.

http://www.nea.gov.sg/corporate-functio ... 00-in-2016

After rechecking, I think I was wrong on this one but the Nos are not that far off. The No of the Dengue cases typically varies in the range of 100 to 300 a week (unless there is an epidemy where it can reach 800-900/week), the No of injuries from rd. traffic accidents is ca 10k per year.
Yes, it depends on locations, and probably more importantly, on the direct vicinity of the construction sites. Still the chances to get it are not that high.

[sundaymorningstaple]

x9200, don't fall into that believe. Mozzies can be found on all floors of any block in Singapore. They usually have about a 10-15 m vertical territory from where they were born. Therefore, habitat being agreeable to them, they can lay eggs at the 12 m level for instance and, not disturbed, the next cycle will have the same range which would take them up another 2 or 3 stories and so forth, eventually, habitat willing they will impact the entire block regardless of height.

I was going to paste some research papers and studies/experiments which would have been right up your alley, but decided in the consideration that most readers would find that reading it rather dry so might give it a miss. This one is for the general population but a search on flight distances or dengue in high rise building will give you a whole lot of additional grist for the mill.

http://www.how2lab.com/leisure/mosquito.php

[sundaymorningstaple]

Vector control is what I do for a living. Or at least my staff does.

[x9200]

E, belief in what? I didn't say there is no chance. I said, the chance is not that high. Not much higher than being the victim of the local drivers. It is an acceptable risk or you have to lock yourself between 6 walls filtering anything that may come in regardless the country you live in. We are talking about some average.

[bgd]

I used to live on the 30th floor of a new block, I would still get the odd bite. But nothing like living much lower, currently on level 4 and do regular battle with the little blighters. It's only me they like, no one else has a problem.

But just to clarify so as not to alarm the OP unnecessarily, these do not carry dengue.

[mrst3030]

Thanks all. My research tells me that while catching dengue is a possibility, dying from is is statistically extremely unlikely. Given that, it doesn't seem like a good reason to fear coming over to Singapore to live.

[taxico]

two words: air conditioning.

[x9200]

What about it?