The global incidence of dengue has surged alarmingly, with World Health Organisation (WHO)-reported cases skyrocketing from 505,430 in 2000 to a staggering 5.2 million in 2019. This trend continued in 2023, reaching a historic peak of over 6.5 million cases across 80 countries, resulting in more than 7,300 deaths. The actual figures are likely much higher due to under-reporting and misdiagnosis of mild cases as other febrile illnesses. Several factors contribute to this escalation: the widespread distribution of dengue vectors, particularly Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, into new territories; climate change effects such as increased temperatures, rainfall, and humidity; and the compounded strain on fragile health systems from the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, 3.9 billion people are at risk, with Asia bearing approximately 70% of the global burden. Dengue virus transmission from humans to mosquitoes occurs even before symptoms appear and continues up to two days after the fever resolves. Infected individuals, whether symptomatic, pre-symptomatic, or asymptomatic, can spread the virus to mosquitoes. High viremia and fever increase the risk of transmission, while elevated DENV-specific antibodies reduce it. Typically, viremia lasts 4-5 days but can extend to 12 days. Urbanization, particularly unplanned, heightens dengue transmission due to factors like population density and water storage practices. Previous DENV infection increases the risk of severe dengue. Community knowledge, attitudes, and practices, such as proper water storage and mosquito bite prevention, significantly impact exposure levels. Routine vector surveillance and control, coupled with community engagement, bolster resilience. As vectors adapt to new environments, climate change and urbanization dynamically shift dengue risks in tropical and subtropical regions. Dengue has become nearly endemic in India, with cases typically spiking after monsoon rains. Last year, Nagaland experienced one of its worst dengue outbreaks, exacerbated by the medical department\u2019s attempts to downplay dengue-related deaths. The outbreak of dengue fever especially in Dimapur swept the foothill areas even as the searing heat and humidity of the monsoon was ending. Because it is spreading like an epidemic, dengue virus, has risen almost to the menacing proportion as Covid-19 and with cases of severity that are often fatal. All the four serotypes of dengue viruses- ENV1, DENV2, DENV3 and DENV 4- are primarily transmitted by Aedes aegypti . Infection with any one of these serotypes generally leads to a mild, self limiting febrile illness (classical dengue fever (DF). Dengue causes reduction in the number of blood platelets(small blood cells) produced by the bone marrow which inhibits blood clot and inability to fight infections. Currently, the situation is alarming in South India, particularly Karnataka, where over 9,000 cases and seven deaths have been reported from January to July this year. The state government revealed that out of 66,298 people tested for dengue by July 13, 9,082 were positive. In the past 24 hours alone, 424 out of 2,557 tested samples were positive. This surge underscores the urgent need for robust public health strategies and transparent reporting to effectively combat dengue\u2019s spread and impact. Chikkamagaluru recorded 599 cases till July 13, which is the second-highest number of cases in the state. By July 13, a total of 5,725 adults over 18 tested positive for dengue, alongside 3,203 children aged one to eighteen and 154 infants under one-year-old. Despite awareness Dengue continues to pose serious threat. It is therefore incumbent upon state governments and civic authorities to take stringent measures to prevent it from resulting in a serious health crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The global incidence of dengue has surged alarmingly, with World Health Organisation (WHO)-reported cases skyrocketing from 505,430 in 2000 to a staggering 5.2 million in 2019. This trend continued in 2023, reaching a historic peak of over 6.5 million cases across 80 countries, resulting in more than 7,300 deaths. The actual figures are likely much […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[685],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-433417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433417\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}