Thailand dengue epidemic surpasses 80,000 cases
The dengue fever outbreak in the Kingdom of Thailand continues to skyrocket, already eclipsing the number of cases recorded in 2012.
According to a National News Bureau of Thailand report Monday, so far this year, 81,763 dengue fever cases have been recorded in Thailand, with the highest concentration of cases in the northern province of Chiang Mai. During the past week, the province saw 6,284 people infected by the virus.
The number of cases are ballooning at a remarkable rate. On June 11, Thai health officials were reporting 43,609 cases and 50 deaths.
In addition, there has been 78 dengue-related fatalities reported.
In 2012, Thailand health officials recorded 74,250 cases of the mosquito borne viral disease and 79 deaths.
Earlier this year, health authorities were warning of 100,000 cases and 100 deaths by years end.
Dengue fever is an infectious disease carried by mosquitoes and caused by any of four related dengue viruses. This disease used to be called “break-bone fever” because it sometimes causes severe joint and muscle pain that feels like bones are breaking.
People get the dengue virus from the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito. It is not contagious from person to person.
There are three types of dengue fever in order of less severe to most: the typical uncomplicated dengue fever, dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHS) and dengue shock syndrome (DSS).
Although the World Health Organization (WHO) says on their recent fact sheet that they currently estimate there may be 50–100 million dengue infections worldwide every year, researchers from theUniversity of Oxford and the Wellcome Trust, using cartographic approaches, estimate there to be 390 million dengue infections per year worldwide.
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The mosquito is never born with the virus but can only collect it from an infected person – and it is the infected person who multiplies the virus, becoming a human reservoir for all the time the fever lasts.
THIS IS WHY IT IS VITALLY IMPORTANT TO PROTECT THE PATIENT FROM FURTHER BITES
Much emphasis is rightly put on eliminating mosquito breeding grounds to control the carriers, but strangely no advice is ever given to restrict the virus’s availability at its only source – us!
It is indeed all Aedes species that can be carriers but the ‘aegypti’ is more often the culprit as it has almost become domesticated and is never found more than 50 metres or so away from humans (its meal of choice). One of the Aedes ‘aegypti’ traits is to forage ALL day so without a sealed air conditioned room for the patient then repellent must be applied ALL DAY.
However, it is always recommended never to over apply DEET or use it for too long – and DEET is found in most repellents. It is also now known the aegypti mosquito is rapidly developing a resistance to DEET….so look out for proven natural repellents such as OnGuard from South Africa (www.onguard.me)