An Unpronounceable Disease

Singapore's tropical climate could support all sorts of nasty diseases but mostly doesn't because of consistent investment in prevention schemes. Monthly fogging and oiling of drains, rubbish chutes and manholes keep mosquito breeding in check as it's the Aedes mozzie that is the transmission vector for Dengue fever.

The NEA have patrols out checking for pools and pots with standing water. More senior staff do house to house visits and they do fine persistent offenders but a $1,000 fine for repeatedly putting lives at risk seems a poor deterrent. My current estate agent lady casually mentioned she had Dengue and was laid up for a week. It doesn't kill many people who have access to health care but it's no holiday.

Since January this year, a new mozzie-borne virus with very similar symptoms has been found: Chikungunya. All the initial patients were in the Little India area, and it makes sense that when transmitted by mozzies with a 250m range of movement, the disease tends to stay put.

The problem with Chikungunya is the name; no-one I know can remember it properly and you end up saying something which rhymes, like Chumbawamba, and your co-conversationalist nods without attempting a better rendition.

So there's a nasty disease with a public relations problem. The doctor who discovered and named SARS (and died of it) knew what the world needed; a tight, catchy name people could remember. AIDS, MRSA, Bird flu, TB; all examples of successful branding.

Chikungunya is now moving around; an expat got it in Thompson Road, then Farrer Road and now a mutation means it can be carried by the Asian Tiger mozzie as well. But the most depressing piece of the ST article was not the local biotech firm pledging to start work on a vaccine, but the throw away line that the US military already has a vaccine but has stopped testing because

"Priorities have since changed. The focus now is global terrorism."

Sometimes, the whole world looks like one big unintended consequence.

Set Chair to Stun

I've had a couple of massages in my life and I've pretty much hated every one. I've never needed a massage for medical purposes and I don't enjoy them enough to do them recreationally. In Singapore, I appear to be in my very small minority of my own.

At the low end, there's retired guys doing a spot of home business, handing out flyers offering a "Good Facial massage" for $10 (£3.40). Massage around Asia takes different styles but it's pretty common all over and he was covering all bases with 3 languages; English ("Facial"), Chinese and Malay ("Cu Ci Muka", or "wash face").

A lesser observed practice is fire cupping which leaves distinctive, round bruises on the skin but we are getting off into traditional Chinese medicine now, which has a distinct and robust status alongside Western medicine, not euphemistically like Complementary Medicine. Chinese will happily use both, simultaneously without any sense of conflict.

Local shopping areas usually have a reflexology shop that is often full to bursting on weekends. My local offers a 40min foot massage for $22 (£8.20) or a 20min upper body massage for $18 (£6.70), both available on a buy 10 and get 2 free basis. Discounting bulk appointments is very common to gain repeat business in a notoriously fickle customer base. I've heard good things about reflexology, but again, I've never felt ill enough to give it a try, though now I'm curious why it's half the cost of an upper body massage; in a surface area / mass basis, it sounds like the wrong way around.

Serious body wobblers have machinery at home, usually made by Osim who do massage chairs, foot massagers, back massagers, eye massagers, and more. We are talking major hardware here. The range of chairs includes a model with mood lighting, synchronised music plus massage and costs £3,000. This thing isn't a chair, it's an escape pod. I amazes me where they find the space to put such huge pieces of furniture but it's really just one end of a market for self-health products in a country without an NHS.