- Dengue and Chickungunya in India
If you followed the headlines of Indian newspapers last week, you would not miss the two words: Dengue (pronounced: den-gee) and Chickungunya.
An outbreak of dengue fever has so far killed 38 people in and around Delhi. Thousands more are reported to be suffering from dengue fever; three of them are close relatives of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Meanwhile, Kerala is battling a massive outbreak of chikungunya with 70 reported deaths. Up to 20,000 people are affected in one district of the state. This disease has already played havoc in many parts of Andhra Pradesh and is spreading into other parts.
There are several symptoms common to the two diseases. Both are viral disease and cause high fever, severe headache, backache, joint pains, nausea and vomiting, and rash. The fever lasts for several days. Chickungunya is not known to be fatal, but dengue fever, if untreated, can cause death.
No vaccine or specific antiviral treatment for chikungunya or dengue fever is available. Treatment is symptomatic- -rest, fluids, and ibuprofen, naproxen, acetaminophen, or paracetamol may relieve symptoms of fever and aching. Aspirin should be avoided. On the other hand, dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) can be effectively treated by fluid replacement therapy if an early clinical diagnosis is made. Hospitalization is frequently required in order to adequately manage DHF.
Most importantly, these diseases are spread by mosquito bites. It is easy to prevent these diseases: protect yourself against mosquito bites and you are safe.
Unfortunately, it is not so easy to prevent these diseases in India. Dengue killed 250 people in Noth India a few years ago, and hundreds are infected every year. Chickungunya resurfaced in India after a gap of 32 years.
Mosquitoes cause other diseases like malaria and kill many people in India every year.
Yet, we do not see mosquitoes as a threat, a danger or a menace. We see these mosquitoes as a mere nuisance - they disturb our sleep. To avoid them, we light up a mosquito-repellent stick, or sleep inside a mosquito net or under a fan.
We see puddles of water – the breeding ground for mosquitoes – outside our house, or around the corner in our neighborhood, but we do not see that as our problem. Most of us think it is Government’s problem. Some of us may even think that killing mosquitoes is a sinful act. We let them breed and pray that they will bite somebody else, but not us.
We have a very little sense of community. We are proud of our clean homes. Next thing we are proud of is India. Anything in between does not count and is not worth our attention. As long as we maintain the attitude that “keeps our homes clean by throwing the trash outside our compound wall”, we will continue to suffer from these easily avoidable epidemics.
posted by Govinda Bhisetti @ 12:33 PM
1 Comments:
Thanks Vijay and Vyas for reading my blog and finding it useful.
Vyas raised a good doubt. Chickungunya resurfced in India after a gap of 32 years. But dengue comes every year. In this aspect, the two viruses are different.
Like chicken pox, you get chickungunya once and it gives immunity from getting it a second time. This partly explains why it did not show up for a long time. Also, I understand that the old virus was the Asian strain (version) and the new one is African strain.
For dengue, however, humans do not get such immunity. Dengue peaks in October every year, as it is the peak season for mosquito-breading with plenty of stagnant rain water after monsoon and good climate.
Humans can control the spread of this desease if we protect ourselves from mosquito bites.
I heard that people are stopping visits to friends and relatives if they are suffering from chickunguny for fear of contracting the disease. It is a misguided behavior. This disease does not spead by person-to-person contact. It is spread by mosquito bites.
You can control the disease by isolating the ptaient from mosquitoes, not from people.
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