1st dengue death of the year

Dengue has claimed its first victim for the year in Singapore.

The woman, a 53-year-old Chinese national, died on Monday.

She had been admitted to the National University Hospital only on that day,  and her condition deteriorated quickly.

The woman lived in West Coast Road, where there was an active dengue cluster with seven reported cases.

The National Environment Agency (NEA)has detected six spots of mosquito breeding since then.

The death came despite a dip in weekly dengue cases over the past three weeks.

According to the Ministry of Health website, the number of cases in the first week of February was 212. That was 49 cases fewer than the week before.

The number continued to fall to 172 in the second week,  and then to 100 in the week ending Feb 21 but the NEA said the recent figure may not represent the true situation because of the long Chinese New Year holiday break.

More than 1,400  dengue cases were reported in the first seven weeks of 2015.

A joint statement by MOH and NEA on the death said: "we need to remain vigilant and continue to keep dengue cases in check as a large proportion of our population is still susceptible to dengue infection due to the lack of immunity."

Last year, five people, aged between 59 and 85, died of the disease.