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. 

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

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

Since thrombocytopenia and haemoconcentration are indispensable analytical criteria for the verification of cases of DHF/DSS, it is incredibly significant that hospital laboratories are properly prepared to carry out sequential haematocrits and platelet counts, both at slightest daily. It should be respected that when all of the selected medical measures, as well as these two, are not confirmed, suspected cases of DHF/DSS cannot be classified as long-established. It is tremendously significant that relevant information on the epidemiology of dengue fever; the clinical analysis and management of all forms of the disease; and suitable vector control events be conversed to all the pertinent stakeholders in proportion, non-alarming messages which will help public health action, produce neighborhood contribution, etc

The mosquito scourge is dependent on certain environmental conditions to survive and our meddling with nature as in the case of once arid lands, turning them into lush farmland may be responsible for spreading the disease. Mosquitoes thrive in tropical environments and with many tropical areas already infected, taming other places that used to be too harsh for them, where rainwater is so precious we try to collect each and every drop turning them into havens for the virus carrying mosquito. (more…)

Dengue infections have spread all over the world and in most cases, modern hospital management and care manages to get the patient back to normal health. The few who die from the disease are a unique bunch who develop a sort of shock-syndrome to the virus, with their bodies reacting so violently they present symptoms the alternate name of dengue is known, hemorrhagic fever that can result in death. (more…)

The outbreaks of many diseases that used to be contained in isolated incidents has become a thing of the past, thanks to modern travel, mostly by air which can reach all corners of the world in less than a day. The recent outbreak of swine flu, a totally different virus more akin to the bird-flu outbreak we had was a first time test of a virus that spread so fast it got out of the containment level before authorities could react. Weaknesses have been exposed and the many gaps of even the best funded government’s health services put to the test. In the end, the world was unprepared for the outbreak which has added to the many problem super-bugs we are now dealing from dengue, avian and swine flu among some of the most recent. (more…)

Researchers have come up with a vaccine that is effective against the four strains of the deadly disease that has proven effective on trials using monkeys. Annually, there are a reported million cases of infection that comes mostly from the tropics and people who have been to such areas. Two of the four types are deadly, hemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome the tetravalent vaccine hopes to address. Proteins from all four viral strains were combined along with an adenovirus agent that resulted in the vaccine that promises to be the best yet.
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Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever(DHF) is actually an old virus that is considered to be one of the most deadliest the world over due to their ability to jump species. Spread by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, that is differentiated by it’s daytime feeding habits, it has silently killed millions the world over. The incubation period is short accompanied by severe fever that usually lasts three days, after which, without proper monitoring and care death is sure to occur. Mostly restricted to areas that are in the tropics zone due to the inability of its host to survive in cold weather. Outbreaks have been well documented and a cure is still out of sight. The disease is however being tackled from different angles, one of them targets the disease at its source, the mosquito which can be infected with a virus that halves its lifespan thus lessening its ability to spread it by half. The danger came when man invented mass travel wherein people and machines could transport the disease carrying mosquitoes all over the globe.