Some hospitals are suspending non-urgent surgeries to cope with the flood of dengue patients, and the government appointed a Cabinet-level panel to deal with the problem.
One lawmaker is suggesting that patients with dengue fever should be quarantined to prevent mosquitoes from biting them and transmitting the disease, but the idea has few supporters so far.
"Our buildings are packed together and there's so much vegetation around us," he says "If we don't have isolation units, I fear the disease would spread further."
Dengue fever is not contagious among humans, but the Aedes mosquito can become infected with the virus by biting a person who has it, and can then transmit it to healthy people. Tan's proposal is to keep mosquitoes away from dengue patients.
Dengue causes severe joint pain, high fever, nausea, rashes and internal bleeding. There is no known vaccine.
