Disease

Record Dengue Outbreak in Singapore

An unusually severe dengue epidemic in Singapore has claimed its fifth fatality this year, even as health officials try to beat back the city-state’s worst-ever outbreak of the tropical disease.

As of Tuesday afternoon, officials had logged 14,363 cases of dengue fever this year, according to the National Environment Agency. The scale of the current epidemic has surpassed that of Singapore’s worst dengue outbreak in 2005, when authorities logged 14,006 confirmed cases and 27 deaths.

Cholera Outbreak in Afghanistan

A cholera outbreak at a village in northeast Afghanistan has infected 1,492 people, killed a young woman and left another 100 in critical condition.

Serious measles outbreak hits Central Africa

A severe measles epidemic has affected the whole territory of the Central African Republic, which lacks any strong health infrastructure, Health Minister Aguid Sounouk announced Tuesday.

The minister blamed the spread of the disease on "outbreaks of measles in several administrative districts of the country where no action was organised to contain the epidemic" since December 2012.

At the time, the landlocked nation was undergoing an insurgency that led in March to the ouster of president Francois Bozize and placed power in the hands of a rebel coalition, which has since joined with other forces to form an interim government.