3)      Brisk growth of cities in tropical countries has directed to congestion, urban decay, and substandard sanitation, permitting more mosquitoes to live nearer to more people.     4)      The amplification in non-biodegradable plastic packaging and redundant tires is generating new breeding sites for mosquitoes.      5)      Augmented jet air travel is serving people dirty with dengue viruses to move easily from city to city.      6)      Dengue hemorrhagic fever is as well on the upsurge. Persons who have been contaminated with one or more variety of dengue virus are at larger risk for the more harsh disease. With the rise in all types of virus, the rate of dengue hemorrhagic fever becomes more expected. 

All types of dengue disease are re-emerging globally and producing larger and more recurrent outbreaks, in particular in cities in the tropics. The surfacing of dengue as a main public health crisis has been most staged in the western hemisphere. Dengue fever has arrived at rampant levels in Central America and is frightening the United States. There are quite a lot of issues that are contributing to the renaissance of dengue fever:

  1)      No valuable mosquito control efforts are happening in most countries with dengue.     2)      Public health structures to identify and be in charge of epidemics are worsening around the world.  

Vector-borne illnesses are those multiply by mosquitoes, sand-flies, ticks and rodents. They comprise diseases such as dengue, West Nile and chikungunya fever, nephropathia epidemica and tick-borne encephalitis (TBE), in which all have the probable to affect epidemic in parts of Europe. The outbreak of chikungunya fever in the region of Ravenna, Italy, last summer is a picture of this danger. The initial conclusions of the risk evaluation were presented and the  last report on the assessment will be available in the upcoming months. The type of weather and environmental transformation being forecast by experts will adjust the risk to Europe from vector borne diseases.

The World Health Organization states that as of 1998, infectious and parasitic diseases slashed one-third of all deaths in the world in 1997 and 43% of deaths among developing nations. The low rate in Cuba is an exception because of the possible high educational and health awareness rate with regards to the disease in the country. This can be attributed to the consistent improvements of Cuba’s health system over the past 50 years which was further amplified by its speedy modernization. The United States, a nation thought of by most people as a world leader, is even inferior to the Cuban health care system, a sheer proof that you don’t need power to heal. 

About 50 years back, a town along the Caribbean, which happens to be a part of Cuba, decided that it has to hasten the pace in terms of medical education. This was when several mass infections hit the nation at the same time, killing so many. Among these viral killers is Dengue. Today, Cuba has a population of about 11 million which are all served by dedicated health workers which includes more than 70,000 medical doctors all working in a first class medical system. Now isn’t this an inspiring scenario for other developing countries? I mean if Cuba can do it, why cant they? It is believed that corruption and not simple lack of resources causes nations to have its people die of any viral epidemic. 
 

During the 1960s, Dengue casualties were reduced significantly with the advent of vaccines and anti-biotic along with deadly viruses such as smallpox, poliomyelitis, and acute rheumatic fever. But Dengue is more than just a seasonal disease, as opposed to the others mentioned above. It is a killer spurned by poverty, social exclusion, health systems, environments, food security, water and sanitation. To win against it, proper education is very important. To truly win against the disease, public health vigilance in terms of modern structures will be needed. This will include disease monitoring, disease prevention, communication, and financial supports are all needed. 

Maria Maria Guzman and her husband are both working in a battle against Dengue for 20 years now. She works at the Tropical Medicine Institute Pedro Kourí (IPK), in Havana, Cuba as one of its head virologist. Her work there has been acknowledged to have made significant contributions in the field of pathogenesis, diagnosis, epidemiology, and clinical progression of this disease. The good doctor has been with the Cuban academy of Science for the Developing Worlds but she concentrates in the fight against Dengue. She is currently a member of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), World Health Organization (WHO), and the Special Program for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR). 

The Dengue prevention organization also believes that educational programs are not prioritized seeing that resources to implement them are not evaluated on a regular basis. The education is somewhat mixed-up and done by inexperienced individuals who at most times give confusing instructions. The training of the staff, to be truly credible in educating the public about dengue, costs too much for countries in which the number one problem is famine. Governments have to keep in mind that if it wants to prevent a mass outbreak, it should make dengue prevention a priority. They don’t have to spend much, Dengue prevention is all about making do with available resources. 

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.  
 

Cambodia has followed suit on the band wagon to combat Dengue through information dissemination. Seeing that dengue is actually a classified disease, one that has a concrete source and a definite step of prevention, the Cambodian government felt it only right to focus on prevention instead of a cure. They are no stranger to the fact that dengue is more prevalent among poverty stricken countries because of their unsanitary conditions as well as their lack of means to avail of the mosquito prevention kits such as nets, insect repellants among other devices. Cambodia has one of the most numbers of people infected by the Dengue fever.