The world is shaken by the coronavirus pandemic, but there is another cause for concern - one that has lived with us for a lot longer than COVID-19... the dengue fever.

Whereas the coronavirus is front and centre of public health discussions, we have seemed to push the dengue fever outbreaks to the back of our minds. Since we have been staying home due to the pandemic, more and more people are also getting infected at an alarming rate.

Find out more from the article from The Straits TImes!

 Three more people have died of dengue fever, bringing the total for the year to 19 deaths as Singapore experiences an outbreak that is unprecedented here.

Those who died were 49 to 92 years of age. Of them, 17 were working or living in a dengue cluster. Last year, a total of 20 people died of dengue.

It was the fifth week running with more than 1,000 cases. Such high infection numbers have not been seen here before. The biggest number of people infected in a week before this year was 891 infections in 2014.

A total of 17,249 people here have been infected as at 3pm on Monday (July 13). This already exceeds the annual infection numbers for all previous years except for the epidemic of 2013-2014.

A poster about dengue fever awareness, hung in neighbourhoods around Singapore.

Experts warn that the number this year is likely to surpass even the 22,170 infections of 2013.

At least 16 people have died from dengue this year. The highest number of fatalities was in 2005 when 25 people died.

Professor Duane Gubler, a dengue expert at the Duke-NUS Medical School, said: "There are a number of factors that influence transmission dynamics and epidemics."

A surge could be caused by a change in the virus serotype. There are four dengue viral strains and getting infected by one doesn't protect a person from getting the other three.

The Mozzie Wipeout initiative to curb the breeding of Aedes mosuitoes.

The National Environment Agency suggested some weeks ago that the unusual increase in cases could be due to the circuit breaker measures implemented to fight Covid-19.

The Aedes mosquito that spreads dengue is a day biter, so more people staying home could lead to increased numbers of infections.

The lockdown measures were lifted some time back but the surge in cases continues unabated.

Dengue infections are expected to stay high for some months, with the hot and wet weather making it easier for the mosquitoes to breed.

Symptoms of Dengue Fever

Symptoms of dengue include a sudden onset of fever that lasts between two and seven days, severe headache and pain behind the eyes, nausea and vomiting, and joint and muscle ache.

Some people might get a skin rash that looks like red pinpricks, as well as bleeding from the nose and gums.

There is no specific treatment for dengue, but doctors can provide support and ease pain. Most people can be treated at outpatient clinics.

About one in five become so sick that they need hospital care.

Stay safe from the Dengue fever!

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