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Most young adults here have no immunity to dengue
MORE than three out
of four young adults here have never been exposed to the dengue virus,
reports a new study.
So, they have no immunity to dengue.
This is bad news as dengue is pandemic
worldwide, so the danger of an uncontrolled outbreak here is growing, said
microbiologist Vincent Chow.
Up to 100 million people a year catch the
disease and most of them are in Asia.
Associate Professor Chow checked 184 healthy
undergraduates at the National University of Singapore in a two-year
study.
He found that 78 per cent of them had no
antibodies to the virus. This makes them vulnerable to dengue.
Prof Chow said that his was a small study, but
it was significant because it had found that so many did not have the
antibodies.
As the immunity level continues to fall, the
danger of an uncontrolled outbreak here grows. This is another reason for
the health authorities to remain vigilant, he said.
'Otherwise, if you have a new dengue strain, and
if there is no good vector control, you can easily get a big outbreak,
like what is happening in Rio de Janeiro,' he said.
There was little dengue infection in the
Brazilian city for several years, following a successful dengue-control
programme. But lax controls since then, coupled with reduced immunity in
people, have led to an explosion of dengue cases there.
The lesson, he said, was that Singapore could
not afford to relax.
Last year, four people died of the disease here,
and there were 46 new cases a week on average. The weekly number peaked at
126 in July.
Dr Duane Gubler, of the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention in the United States, said Singapore would not be
able to eradicate dengue because of the regional epidemic.
Dr Gubler, director of the vector-borne
infectious diseases division, said: 'Singapore has mosquito control to a
point that if it was a normal situation, they would not have a dengue
problem. But if you look at every country around Singapore, they have
periodic epidemics.'
Extract from
Straits Times 14 of March 2002
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