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Friday, Aug 10, 2007
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Dengue alert for South-East Asia

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The South-East Asia Regional Office (SEARO) of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has urged the countries in the region to take prompt action to contain and prevent outbreaks of dengue, a mosquito-borne viral illness.

Cases on the rise

The number of reported dengue cases has increased in Indonesia, Myanmar and Thailand. Indonesia has twice the number of cases this year (compared with 45,777 cases during the same period in 2005).

Myanmar and Thailand saw increases of 29 per cent and 17 per cent over the same period. Past experience shows that in countries like India, dengue outbreaks begin to increase from August onwards soon after the monsoon rains.

Dengue and dengue haemorrhagic fever are ecological diseases and prevention is the key to effective control. Surveillance of vectors and the disease are both very critical because outbreaks of dengue are generally preceded by increased vector populations in local areas.

“Vector control such as the control of mosquito breeding in domestic and peri-domestic areas, is imperative for prevention of dengue.

“This requires the full participation and mobilisation of the community at the individual and household level,” said Dr. Jai P. Narain, Director of Communicable Diseases for SEARO. Individuals, families, community support groups, self-help groups, Non-Governmental Organisations, local authorities and departments of health need to work together to address the situation because dengue is everyone’s concern.

Individuals can take simple steps such as emptying all water containers at least once a week and ridding their surroundings of containers that collect rain water, which will help to prevent the laying of eggs by the mosquitoes that are the dengue vector.

Aedes mosquitoes bite only during daytime unlike malaria-carrying mosquitoes.

Aside from joint pain, dengue victims experience rashes, nausea and headaches.

But some also suffer a potentially fatal form called dengue haemorrhagic fever, which causes internal bleeding and circulatory failure.

Aspirin should be avoided in cases of dengue fever as it is known to increase the tendency to bleed.

No vaccine has yet been found for any of the four strains of dengue virus, and none of the four confers immunity from the others, the WHO statement said.

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