The first recorded outbreak happened in Australia last 1897. A reoccurrence was noted in 1928 during an epidemic in Greece and again, for the third time, in Taiwan last 1931. The initial outbreak in Australia verified the epidemic there. It was not long before it reached other Asian countries including India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, as well as in Singapore, Cambodia, China, Laos, Malaysia, New Caledonia, Palau, Philippines, Tahiti and Vietnam in the Western Pacific Region. Today, Dengue has most definitely come a long way from being a rare symptom on a foreign land to becoming a common house hold killer among locals evident in almost all Asian nations. 

Dengue alert in Queensland’s far north.

Two people in Port Douglas have contracted dengue-fever while two more have fallen ill in the neighboring town of Mossman earlier this month, according to Queensland Health.

Brian Montgomery from the Tropical Population Health Network says that authorities are doing what they can to alleviate the problem. Local councils are now doing yard inspections and are helping in disseminating information that educates people about this mosquito-borne disease. They are also encouraging local residents to be more ware of their surroundings and help get rid of water where said insects could breed.

Source: ABC

Palau’s Bureau of Public Health has alerted the public that there is a continued increase in the number of confirmed cases of dengue fever. This is after conducting several tests starting May of last year (2007). Results state that the number has reached the double-digit category with 16 new cases reported in the first couple of weeks of February 2008 alone.

Information on preventive measures such as cleaning and maintaining yards to eliminate all actual and potential mosquito breeding sites have been disseminated among residents of the famous vacation spot.

The public has also been encouraged to use insect repellant and wearing of clothing that offers maximum body coverage (long sleeves, pants, socks and shoes) when cleaning around the house.

Source: mvariety

It was beetles in Vietnam, but in the Philippines, Dr. Paulyn Jean Ubial, a ranking health official has appealed to people to spare spiders, lizards, frogs and other animals that prey on mosquitoes. This announcement was prior to a warning by the World Health Organization (WHO) about the rising incidence of dengue fever in many parts of Asia and that is including the Philippines.

According to Ubial, that there is a need to preserve these creatures that prey on mosquitoes because they help us control health menaces such as dengue-carrying mosquitoes, especially now that these mosquitoes seem to have built resistance to chemical insecticides. After all, measures such as fogging in areas where dengue is endemic, have been dismal failures in controlling the mosquito population.

Source: PDI

Researchers from The University of Arizona in Tucson have discovered that a particular species of mosquito, the Aedes aegypti (the infamous dengue carrier), has quite a complex metabolic pathway. It requires its members to excrete toxic nitrogen after feasting on human blood. If they do not do this, they also fail to lay eggs which will eventually weaken and kill them.

Neat huh?

The team of researchers composed of leader Roger L. Miesfeld, members Patricia Y. Scaraffia, Guanhong Tan, Jun Isoe, BIO5 member Vicki H. Wysocki, and the late Michael A. Wells will be publishing the results of their study in the January 15 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The group believes that further development of this project, such as finding a way to keep the mosquitoes from excreting nitrogen, will help eradicate the deadly disease

Source: CCNMag

Some 300 medical teams from all over the world has been sent across Asia to fight and prevent outbreaks of Dengue. The BBC News was told by Mumbai officials that 250 people had been rushed to various Mumbai hospitals stricken with Dengue fevers for the past several days. “They are all suffering from fever, Leptospirosis was suspected. There is no epidemic, though,” claims the source of the news. This was thwarted by the statement of a Mumbai Health officer who otherwise stated that Dengue fever was indeed a major concern in their country. Well actually isn’t it a major problem for practically everyone in the third world? 

According to the researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis,
their particular study and research have shown that antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) of infection is actually able to be suppressed by C1q, a blood-borne immune system compound.

Er, let�s put it on a more understandable context.

This epidemiological and laboratory-based ADE study is relevant in helping the control of viral disease outbreaks. Public health experts and clinicians may someday be able to design more effective aid systems such as safer and more effective vaccines.

The results of this study may also be the key to formulating a working dengue vaccine. Scientists have theorized that dengue patients become more vulnerable to another infection because of inadequate antibodies to eradicate the dengue virus when it returned. However, when researchers tried to simulate this particular phenomenon in animal models, they were unable to.

Source: Newswise

There may be hope for dengue cure after all. Unfortunately, we all still have to wait a few more years � well, until 2012. That�s how long until the vaccine Tetravalent, manufactured by drug company Sanofi will be ready to be submitted for approval.

According to reports of the drug trial conducted in the United States, the vaccine was found to be 100% effective against all four serotypes of the virus that are responsible for the deadly dengue fever. Sanofi plans also to do clinical trials of said vaccine in Asia and Latin America. Now isn�t this good news?

Source: News Medical

Dengue is usually associated with poorer tropical countries. The disease leads to a sudden onset of fever with severe headaches, muscle and joint pains, as well as rashes. According to the AFP, the mosquito viral called Dengue fever has instantly become a significant public viral outbreak in Thailand, where a recent epidemic resulted in 63,000 cases and 91 deaths nationwide. Health education is crucial to the minimization of the disease. To make sure that people understand the cause of infection and the ways to prevent people from catching the virus is the best step to combat Dengue. Health education for dengue control should be provided in primary schools and community health centers as suggested by the National Dengue Control Program.

 

There is no detailed or specific action for dengue fever, but close medical awareness and clinical management revives the lives of many patients. At the present time, the only technique of controlling dengue and DHF is to battle the vector mosquito all the way through chemical control and environmental management. Community-based cleaning operations remove tyres, bottles, cans and other objects that catch and keep hold of water, get free of possible breeding sites for vector mosquitoes. Larval surroundings are too treated with insecticide. Insecticidal space sprays, by means of vehicle-mounted or moveable machines, are used in many programmes for urgent situations and to  control the growth of adult mosquitoes.