There has been a worrying spike in dengue cases so far this year. And the Ministry of Health views the situation so seriously that it has issued a bulletin to doctors, reminding them to report any suspected cases of the disease.
In the bulletin, the ministry revealed that six people were admitted to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital during the first four weeks of this year with dengue fever or dengue haemorrhagic fever. This is double the number of hospitalizations for the same period last year.
What’s more, there have been 51 confirmed cases of dengue fever during the first four epidemiologic weeks of this year as compared with 20 cases during the same period of 2012.
The ministry noted that the number of cases for last month was higher than expected, but below the “epidemic threshold”. However, it said that “the number of cases (2012) exceeded the epidemic threshold from July to December”, and appealed to doctors to assist in tracking and combating the disease.
