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Elvin Ng gets steroid jabs after sandfly bites on Sentosa beach left him with ‘unbearable’ itchiness
He said it was his first time getting sandfly bites and that he was likely highly allergic to them.
June 24, 2026, 04:20 PM
Top images via @elvinngchoonsiong/Instagram
Local actor Elvin Ng has been dealing with the aftermath of sandfly bites for four months, going through multiple rounds of treatment, including steroid injections, after creams and antihistamines failed to bring relief.
Ng shared on Instagram that he had just gone through another round of localised steroid injections on each bite spot to bring down inflammation and reduce scarring.
He wrote:
"So yes that's me going through another round of steroid injections to each sandfly bite infection/allergic reaction which has refused to go away since 4 months ago. It's actually not that painful (luckily there's ice) but I was just bracing myself for each shot and squeezing any life out of the plushie (luckily I have it) for destress purposes."
How it started
Ng said he had been at his usual suntanning spot at one of the Sentosa beaches, a place he had visited many times before, when the bites happened without him noticing.
He wrote:
"I learnt after that it is by the water between the wet and dry areas which are most likely to have sandflies and they can't even be seen by the naked eye."
The bites only became a problem about a month later, right around the time he was also dealing with an eye operation in late February during Chinese New Year.
He added:
"They started getting inflamed a month (delayed reaction) after I was at the beach suntanning, at about the same time I had to go for my eye operation which was the first few days of CNY in end Feb, so it has been a really tough start to the horse year with a bad eye and super itchy legs until now (and even after my eye has almost fully recovered)."
Why steroid creams didn't work
Ng visited a GP twice and was prescribed antihistamines and steroid creams, but neither made much of a difference. He eventually found that localised steroid injections directly on each bite were more effective, as the wounds had formed scabs that the creams could no longer penetrate.
He said it was his first time getting sandfly bites and that he was likely highly allergic to them.
"They became really inflamed and unbearable," he wrote.
His advice to others
Ng said he was sharing his experience to help others avoid going through the same ordeal, urging beachgoers to always apply insect repellent before heading to the beach, even just to suntan.
He continued:
"Hopefully this helps, and you won't need to go through the same kind of crazy itchiness (scratching till they bleed) I've been tolerating for months, and you can do better to protect yourself from this 'common enemy'."
