Dengue fever: Taiwan cases continue to surge, Delhi has record August
Taiwan continues to see the surge of dengue fever this summer as health officials put the case count at 4,343 so far this summer. This is the worst recorded outbreak of the mosquito borne virus on the island country since Taiwan’s CDC started systematic tracking of the disease in 2003.
Image/Taiwan CDC Facebook page
The bulk of cases have been reported in the south, particularly in Tainan City, which has recorded more than 3,800 cases, or 88 percent of the total.
In addition, the CDC has confirmed that 10 fatalities are due to dengue fever, while another seven are suspected and still being investigated.
2,700 miles away in the world’s second most populous city of Delhi, India, health officials have reported the most dengue cases in an August since 2010. Delhi saw 831 cases last month, this compares to 33 cases reported in August 2014.
Included in the cases are a Palestinian diplomat and his two sons. First Secretary in Palestine Embassy Abd Elrazeg Abu Jazer was admitted to a private hospital in Chanakyapuri on August 26 while his two sons Ashraf (23) and Amzad (16) were admitted to a hospital on August 28, according to local media.
The outbreak in the city has put a strain on blood banks as patients showing low platelet counts have supplies.
In an address yesterday, Shri B P Sharma, Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has asked the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) of the Health Ministry, Delhi Government and the Municipal Corporations to coordinate their IEC activities towards this end.
The Secretary also said that all four serotypes (1, 2, 3 & 4) of Dengue were isolated from time to time from various States in India. The report of Serotype presently circulating in Delhi is awaited. The process of identification is underway at AIIMS and the result is expected within a week, he stated.
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).
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates there may be 50–100 million dengue infections worldwide every year. However, new research from the University of Oxford and the Wellcome Trust, using cartographic approaches, estimate there to be 390 million dengue infections per year worldwide.
Robert Herriman is a microbiologist and the Editor-in-Chief of Outbreak News Today and the Executive Editor of The Global Dispatch
Follow @bactiman63
