Singapore has reported 8,850 dengue fever cases from the beginning of this year to September 3, Channel NewsAsia reported on Tuesday night.

As the highest weekly number of 546 cases posted last week, the National Environment Agency (NEA) has allocated another 6 million Singapore dollars (about 3.6 million US dollars) for a dedicated mosquito control program.

Town Councils are expected to use the funds to hire more dedicated pest control operators to intensify checks on mosquito breeding sites and take comprehensive measures to eradicate such sites.

In late August, the NEA announced an additional 7.5 million Singapore dollars (about 4.5 million US dollars) to its yearly fund of 2.5 million Singapore dollars (about 1.5 US dollars) used for flushing the drains, one of the most likely mosquito breeding sources.

Other measures taken by the NEA in the past two months included recruiting more field inspectors, putting up posters at bus stops and Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) stations, as well as distributing new sets of dengue educational kits to 70,000 families.

The city state has seen an upward trend in the number of the disease in recent years with a total of 9,459 cases being found last year, almost doubling the 4,788 cases in 2003.

Source: Xinhua