By NNN-Bernama
Singapore : Eleven key scientific bodies have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) here and formed the Singapore Dengue Consortium to share information and findings on the disease.
The consortium said this was to better understand the dengue virus and facilitate the development of prevention, treatment and eradication strategies.
“As a tropical nation, Singapore has had to face the dengue problem,” said Dr Ooi Eng Eong, Programme Director of Biological Defence at the DSO National Laboratories, which is a consortium member.
“With so many of the world’s leading researchers and scientists now based here, we feel the Singapore Dengue Consortium will play a vital part in not only helping to better understand the virus but also developing strategies to prevent, treat and eventually eradicate this debilitating and potentially deadly disease,” he said.
Last week, a total of 401 cases were detected in this small island republic of just four million people, with the figure breaching the epidemic level for the first time since 2005.
The consortium was established in 2003 to encourage collaboration among Singapore institutions to better understand the dengue virus.
With the new MoU, it has now grown to include DSO National Laboratories, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore, Experimental Therapeutics Centre, Genome Institute of Singapore, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Nanyang Technological University, National Environment Agency (NEA), National Healthcare Group, National University of Singapore, Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases, and Singapore Health Services.
Currently, there are no vaccines or drug therapies for dengue, and dengue prevention relies solely on mosquito control, the consortium said in a statement, adding that globally, an estimated 50 million to 100 million people a year are infected with the dengue virus.
“A better understanding of the dengue virus itself is vital to developing anti-viral drugs, as well as understanding how to limit the spread of this disease and minimize the risk of dengue haemorrhagic fever, which can be a consequence of multiple dengue infections,” the consortium said.