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Published on August 1, 2007

Dengue fever is raging across Southeast Asia, prompting the World Health Organisation to warn that the region could face the worst outbreak of the mosquito-borne virus in nearly a decade.

The disease, sometimes called the "bone breaker" illness because of the excruciating joint pain it causes, has flared across the region from ultramodern Singa-pore to poor Viet-nam. There are four different types of dengue and none has a cure or vaccine.

Cambodia is currently one of the most affected countries, where the disease has attacked about 25,000 people and killed nearly 300 children under the age of 15 so far this year. Sick children have overwhelmed ill-equipped hospitals, forcing babies burning up with fever to wait for beds outside with intravenous drips attached to their arms.

The last major outbreak to hit Southeast Asia was in 1998, when about 350,000 cases were reported, including nearly 1,500 deaths. Indonesia and Thailand were not included in that tally.

John Ehrenberg, WHO's regional adviser on vector-borne diseases, said it could potentially reach that level again this year.

"It looks like it might be a bad year," he said. "I think we're in the building-up stage, but it could very well peak by August or September."

Malaysia has seen a 50-per-cent jump in cases this year over the same period in 2006, with more than 1,000 patients admitted every week for the past month and 56 deaths recorded through June, according to Health Ministry figures.

In Indonesia, more than 100,000 infections have been reported this year, including 1,100 deaths. That compares to 114,000 cases and the same number of fatalities for all of 2006, said Nyoman Kandun, a senior Health Ministry official who predicted the number would hit 200,000 by the year's end.

Singapore, known for its spotless streets and cutting-edge health facilities, has also not escaped dengue this year. The government has reported nearly 5,000 cases and at least three deaths.

In Thailand, the Public Health Ministry said yesterday that 9,245 people were reported to have dengue fever from January to May this year and 10 had died. The number of patients increased by 17 per cent from the corresponding period last year, with 40 per cent living in the Central region and 25 per cent in the South.

The top 10 provinces with the highest number of dengue patients per population of 100,000 are Samut Sakhon, Trat, Phang Nga, Pattani, Songkhla, Yala, Samut Prakan, Chanthaburi, Samut Songkhram and Surat Thani.

In Bangkok, the number of dengue patients during the first five months this year totalled 1,612 with one fatal case recorded, according to the ministry.

The ministry's permanent secretary Prat Bunyawongvirot yesterday said he had instructed public health offices and hospitals in every province to step up implementation of preventive measures against a possible outbreak of dengue fever during the remaining months of the rainy season.

In Vietnam, which also typically logs a high number of annual cases, health officials have seen a 40-per-cent increase over last year, reporting more than 33,000 infections this year and 32 deaths.

"We always think next year it will get better, but we always find next year it gets worse," said Kroeger Axel, a dengue research coordinator at the WHO in Geneva. "There's a very clear upward trend."