In less than a month, 126 people have died and more than 12,000 have been diagnosed with the virus, which has spread rapidly among both rich and poor in Pakistan’s cultural capital Lahore.
Dengue affects between 50 and 100 million people in the tropics and subtropics each year, resulting in fever, muscle and joint ache. It can also be fatal, developing into haemorrhagic fever and shock syndrome, which is characterised by bleeding and a loss of blood pressure.
There is currently no vaccine for Dengue Fever. Instead, prevention methods focus on mosquito control because the disease is caused by four strains of virus spread by the mosquito Aedes aegypti.
While the exact source of the problem is unknown, Pakistani authorities in Lahore have blamed the crisis on prolonged monsoon rains and unusually high seasonal temperatures, while locals are holding the authorities accountable, claiming government inefficiency is the main problem.
Three Faces of Dengue
Dengue was first described in 1779 from Java. Subsequently, Benjamin Rush1 reported an epidemic occurring in Philadelphia and coined the colloquial term "breakbone fever." Henceforth, dengue was recognized only in its classical presentation 2 as a remitting fever characterized by abdominal pain, arthralgia, lymphadenopathy, severe bone pain, a diphasic dermal eruption and a positive Rumple-Leede test.
In the 1920's, large scale outbreaks of the disease occurred in the Eastern Mediterranean and along the Gulf Coast of the United States. During World War II dengue was a major source of disability among military personnel in the Far East. In the Southwest Pacific Theater alone over 50,000 cases were encountered among
As dengue cases rise, civic body faces strike
A month before the Commonwealth Games begin, Delhi seems to be losing its fight against dengue. On Sunday, 59 new cases were reported. In 2009, only four cases had been confirmed till August 29. In 2010, the figure has hit 800. What’s worse, the domestic breeding checkers (DBCs) — who go
door-to-door to check mosquito breeding — have decided to skip work from Monday.
There are 3,200 DBCs who work on a contractual basis for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). They have threatened to stop work until they are made permanent employees.
The reasons to worry are many. “We have been admitting 15 to 20 dengue patients every day. Seventy-five per cent of more than 50 suspected dengue cases are turning positive on a daily basis,” said Dr Sandeep Budhiraja, director, Internal Medicine, Max hospital, Saket.
The anti-malaria employees’ body is firm on its demand. “They (MCD) have been making false promises for years. We will stop work from tomorrow,” said the general secretary of the body, Ashok Chaudhary. The civic agency has said the demand cannot be fulfilled since it is facing a fund crunch
Dengue has claimed seven lives and about 247 positive cases have been reported from various parts of Madhya Pradesh as the disease shows no signs of abating. Seven persons fell victim to dengue in the last 15 days, while the number of positive cases went up to 247 during the same period, in the state, officials said.
As per the latest data, a total of 968 samples for dengue test were taken in the state, of which 247 were diagnosed positive while two reports were still awaited from Gandhi Medical College here, Dr B S Ohri, Regional Joint Director Health, Bhopal Division, said.
Bhopal, Indore and Balaghat were identified as worst affected where 179 cases were tested positive, he said. Joint Director Health, Dr Amarnath Mittal said seven dengue deaths were recorded in the state in 15 days. Of these, Balaghat recorded the maximum three deaths while Bhopal, Indore, Rajgarh and Raisen recorded one death each, he said.
Three deaths were recorded in rural areas while four took place in different city hospitals, Mittal said. The situation in Balaghat district was a matter of concern where three dengue deaths were recorded out of only 17 cases diagnosed positive from 27 samples collected, he said.
The death ratio of Balghat was much higher than Bhopal and Indore where only two deaths were recorded out of 162 positive cases, he said. Deputy Director Health, Dr Rajesh Sisodia, said in Datia district two cases of dengue were found while in Dindori and Satna, two and three cases respectively were tested positive.
