Coronavirus: Dengue fever on the rise in Southeast Asia amid lockdown

Mosquitoes may be thriving as restrictions mean less chance for neighbourhoods to be cleaned

Singapore has seen record numbers of cases (Reuters)

The global coronavirus lockdown may have helped blunt the Covid-19 pandemic but, across Southeast Asia, it appears to have spurred another deadly disease: dengue fever.

The mosquito-carried virus – which causes crushing joint pain – has skyrocketed in the continent’s tropical regions where it is most common.

Singapore has reported a record 165 cases a day in the second week of June, while, in Indonesia, there have been some 64,251 cases this year – a 60 per cent jump on the same time in 2019. Bali, the popular tourist destination, has almost 9,000 infections. Malaysia, too, is reported to be suffering.

Now experts have said the Aedes mosquito, which transmits the disease, may be thriving because coronavirus restrictions have prevented communities from cleaning up the stagnant water and detritus that acts as breeding grounds for the deadly insect.

“Lockdowns are placing more people at home than they normally would,” Cameron Simmons, director of the Institute of Vector-Borne Disease at Melbourne’s Monash University, told Bloomberg.

And he added: “While no evidence has emerged proving a direct link, lockdowns could potentially have created an environment where mosquitoes are interacting more with the population than they would otherwise.”

The disease, which can lead to high temperatures, rashes, severe sickness and occasionally fatal shocks, is caused by one of four virus types.

The less-common type 3 has driven this particular outbreak — the first time it has been the dominant strain in Singapore in almost 30 years.

The low herd immunity to the strain has enabled it to flourish, the city-state’s environment agency confirmed, adding that the challenge now would be to deal with the disease while sticking to the social restrictions needed to combat Covid-19.