NEWS FLASH - Singapore, Cuba sign MOU to fight dengue

SINGAPORE:
Singapore's fight against dengue has moved up a notch.

It joined hands with Cuba - which has vast experience in dengue control - to collaborate on research in this area.

The two countries inked an agreement for the cooperation on Friday.

The Memorandum of Understanding will allow both countries to leverage on each other's expertise and experience in dengue control.

Prof Gustavo Kouri said:
"The conditions are very different, so you can study our experience and we can study your experience and exchange the information. It's evident that you have mosquitoes in the houses. You have very good system, you have very good regime, your water supply is good...(and yet you have) but the mosquito. You have a very high (population) density - one of the highest in the world, I think, in this small city of four million inhabitants. So, now we have to extrapolate or interchange our experiences."

Professor Leo Yee Sin, clinical director at Tan Tock Seng Hospital's Centre for Communicable Diseases, said:
"Cuba and Singapore experience mainly adult dengue... very different from this region where dengue is predominantly a children's disease."

"It's extremely important for us to understand the adult manifestation, how they reach the adults... which adult population tends to have more serious diseases, and of this, how to bring them into tertiary care and what would be the best treatment modalities for them. The ultimate goal is to reduce mortality."

Singapore has had seven deaths from dengue this year, five of whom were above 55 years old.

{ News extract dated 14 Sept 2007, Fri from Channel NewsAsia }