The politics of community-based dengue control: the Singaporean case
Examination of efforts to control Dengue fever in Singapore during the twentieth century
This presentation explores the history of efforts to control Dengue fever in Singapore during the twentieth century. Its target audience are staff and students interested in the history of Dengue fever and/or public health in Singapore, as well as the broader post-colonial histories of public health and health education in Southeast Asia.
The hypermodern city-state of Singapore boasts one of the oldest and most influential anti-dengue programs in the world. Between 1965 and 1985, health authorities successfully reduced dengue by mandating that citizens help suppress the breeding of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. However, after 1985, annual epidemics of dengue returned, sparking doubts about the success and sustainability of the program.
This talk uses Singapore’s anti-dengue program as a case study of the promises and limits of health campaigns in sustaining long-term change. Although a number of reasons were given for the return of dengue, including a fall in population immunity and mosquito adaptation, a key finding was that two decades of anti-dengue messaging and state intervention had paradoxically reduced the public’s sense of personal responsibility for mosquito control. While the disjunction between good knowledge but poor behavioural follow-up was heightened by a unique sense of 'advertising/campaign fatigue' in Singapore, it also reflected growing concerns that health education had to be replaced by 'health persuasion' in global dengue control. The longer history of dengue in Singapore thus suggests that encouraging more participatory forms of vector control, which are routinely cited as a gold standard in dengue prevention, may be more difficult than it first appears.
Speaker
Timothy Sim
PhD Student, University of Cambridge
Timothy Sim is PhD student in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge. His thesis examines the suppression and resurgence of Dengue fever in Singapore, examining issues such as the transition from malaria to dengue control, responses to public health campaigns, and regional and international networks involved in dengue control.
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