News about Dengue Fever

Taken from a Straits Times article (27february) headline: Refusing to let Good Science go to Waste

IT WAS barely a week before her baby boy was due, but Dr Rosemary Tan ignored her throbbing feet and distended belly.

Speaking from an auditorium podium at the biomedical centre Biopolis, she announced the launch of accurate, fast diagnostic tests for three killer diseases, in particular bird flu. It was a crucial moment for her infant medical diagnostics company.

'It was basically do or die,' said the chief executive of Veredus Laboratories, recalling that day last July. 'All our efforts had been leading to this moment.'

A week after giving birth to her second child, Creston, the 37-year-old was on a plane overseas to talk shop.

'This may sound corny, but it's about saving lives and we wanted the kits out as soon as possible,' she said.

Veredus was among the first in the world to sell the H5N1 bird flu detection kits commercially. Its other two tests - for malaria and dengue fever - are also based on research done here.

The company declined to reveal the price, but The Straits Times understands that such kits generally sell for around $15 apiece.

With deadly bird flu continuing to spread, orders have arrived from all over the world. Veredus' Science Park facility, which can produce 100,000 kits a month, has been selling them by the tens of thousands to countries in the Middle East, Europe and Asia.

It is being used by health authorities in Vietnam, and thousands of kits have been sent to Indonesia as part of an aid package.