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Online 15 Oct 05 Buzzing over dengue Yvonne Lim Voices Editor READER Daisy Huber was deeply distraught to read one dengue expert's comment: "It's not the end of the world. Don't worry. We can keep trying to get rid of their breeding sites." . She wrote: "Both my husband and I had dengue fever about 15 years ago in Indonesia. My husband came down with dengue again on Aug 13, 2004. We were told by the doctor, 'Don't worry you are not going to die of it'. "My husband — 50 years of age — died on Aug 18, 2004." . Nobody, she said, had told them contracting dengue for the second time could be deadly. Her husband, a health-conscious man, had never been hospitalised, never been seriously ill. Their home was regularly checked for eggs, as she "was always very aware of the danger". "But what about the construction sites around? The mosquitoes don't know any boundaries," she said. . While, for many, dengue may not be "the end of the world", for her "and for the families of the 13 people who died of dengue this year, it is … So instead of keep TRYING, DO something!" she cried. "Do something" was the theme of the scores of letters Today received on the dengue issue over the past month. And almost everyone had a view on what that "something" ought to be. Herbert Teo forwarded an on-line BBC News article about how South Africa was fighting the malaria-carrying mosquito with DDT. He said: "I know DDT was banned here too, but if it can kill the Aedes mosquito, I vote to bring DDT back for one year! After all, we are not an agricultural country." Lim Boon Hee noted that India had introduced guppies and other fish that can "eat their own body weight in mosquito larvae" into stagnant ponds. Why not do that here, and release dragonflies and other natural predators of mosquitoes? Ramchand Ramesh suggested setting one mosquito to kill another; the Toxorhynchites, used in countries "such as Japan, the Caribbean and the United States" to feed on other larvae. Seah Leong Khai's solution was to release frogs into parks. Kelvin Kang's take was simply to "let the haze come back. It snuffs out the mozzies." And then, of course, there were the readers who suggested breeding mosquitoes in a controlled environment — mozzie "hotels" — to kill off the larvae. But surely the most prolific letter writer of the lot was Ken Poi, a Singaporean living in Australia, whose feedback included these points: •Putting lids over the "holes" on recycling bins, so that rainwater would not get in and collect; •Using tiny micro-crustaceans called copepods, which Queensland scientists had reportedly used to "successfully eliminate the breeding of dengue-carrying mosquitos in 42 Vietnamese communities". Then there were those suggestions one should take with a fair amount of scepticism — and not without the doctor's advice. One email from Malaysia that made the rounds claimed a classmate's son's blood platelet count shot up after he drank "raw juice of the papaya leaves". The recipe entailed two leaves per day, with the warning that the concoction was "very bitter and you have to swallow it like Won Low Kat". Another claimed "a friend" in a critical state bounced back within three days of drinking this. "Just go to the market and ask the makcik who sells ulam and they usually have papaya … It's simple and miraculously effective!" advised the writer. Also from Malaysia, a Mr Chen called the MediaCorp hotline with the cryptic revelation that "the cure for dengue in the Malaysian countryside is to use the shell shed by spiders". Hotline caller Mdm Lee swore by a remedy "tested and proven by her relative": Take four frog legs and four small bittergourds, and steam them "until the juice comes out". Other readers may not have had suggestions to offer, but they were critical of early efforts by the authorities, before the recent "carpet combing" blitz. K S Chua sent photos showing a neighbour's vacant house with a hole in the roof, and griped about how the authorities were unable to trace the owner and, although the house was fogged, the roof remained unrepaired. Richard Tay grumbled about how officials took four days to pick up a dead Aedes mosquito he had killed. Goh Eng Wah reported that drains along Ang Mo Kio Ave 2 were clogged with leaves and litter for three months, while Binu Varkey meticulously directed the authorities' attention to a small crack with "oozing water and algae" on the MRT line along Yishun Ave 2. And there were many, many more such danger spots reported by readers. No one can say Singaporeans aren't playing their part in some way at least. links Related articles on Singapore: dengue issues, policies, discussions |
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