dengue

With the start of the rainy season, Francisco Duque III, health secretary in the Philippines, on Tuesday emphasized a continued government commitment to controlling and preventing dengue - a disease for which there is currently no vaccine or specific drug, the Manila Times reports.

A total of 6,537 cases of dengue, including 62 deaths, have been reported in the country over the past five months, according to the Department of Health (DOH). While the latest DOH dengue figures are lower compared to this time last year, "a sharp increase is expected when cases for the past month - when the country experienced heavy rains - are included in the tally," the newspaper writes.

"We are heartened by the heroic efforts of all those who worked hard so that there is a big 57.4 percent decrease in the number of dengue cases compared to the same period last year," Duque said. Still, he cautioned, "Our success last year, however, should not lull us into complacency this year."

Because diseases are more prevalent during the rainy season, the government kicked off a nationwide anti-dengue campaign last week to educate the population on how to protect themselves. "The most important key to prevent and control diseases is empowering our people with correct information so that they can take steps to stop their transmission and limit the harm that they bring through proper and timely health-seeking behavior," Duque said (Lontayao, Manila Times, 6/10).. Dengue fever, also called dengue, is a potentially serious disease caused by a virus. There are four types of dengue virus that can cause illness in humans (DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3 and DEN-4).

II. Dengue is rare in the U.S., but is common and a serious public health threat in warm sub-tropical and tropical areas of the world. It is most common in urban areas and outbreaks occur commonly during the rainy season when mosquitoes breed heavily in standing water.

III. The incidence of dengue fever is on the rise worldwide, and in some areas of Asia, complications of the disease are a leading cause of serious illness and death in children.

Body

I. Dengue viruses are transmitted between humans by the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito.

A. Mosquitoes pick up a dengue virus when they bite a human who is already infected with the virus.

1. The mosquito then carries it in its own blood and spreads it when it bites other humans.

2. After a dengue virus enters the human bloodstream, it spreads throughout the body.

B. There are a number of systems common to recognise these Dengue fevers occur.

II. Symptoms appear in about eight to ten days after a bite from an infected mosquito.

A. Symptoms are flu-like and can include high fever, nausea, vomiting, body aches, and headache.

B. Most people can recover from dengue fever, but some cases can progress into a life-threatening complication called dengue hemorrhagic fever. Symptoms of this disease include severe, uncontrolled haemorrhage and shock.

III. These methods guarantee prevention of Dengue fever.