Singapore is in the midst of fighting and controlling the coronavirus outbreak with some success in the past few weeks.

It has even won praise from the World Health Organisation and others for its efforts. This speaks volumes about the resources we have and the way we manage to sustain good medical practices.

It appears to be a totally different story when it comes to the fight against dengue. This disease seems to be our nemesis, our Achilles heel.

Last year, 16,100 people were infected and 20 died of dengue (Dengue cases up again after five weeks of decline, Jan 8).

That is many times worse than the current crisis, especially considering how quickly the coronavirus can spread if not kept under control.

Dengue has been plaguing us for a long time at the cost of many deaths and loss of manpower hours.

I am baffled as to why, with our vast resources and medical know-how, we are unable to control and eradicate it.

Has there been any effort to find out which countries have very low dengue cases and to adopt some of their best practices?

Teo Yew Cheng