Home ›› 16 Oct 2022 ›› Editorial
The ongoing onslaught of dengue has come as a double whammy for the citizens of the country with the Corona pandemic still not over. Often the primary symptoms look similar, which leads to confusion and at times panic. The deadly disease has already claimed over 80 lives and the number of patients with dengue fever symptoms is increasing on a daily basis. Alarmingly, more and more children are falling victim to the disease needing hospitalisation for appropriate treatment. Bangladesh has logged as many as 23,282 dengue cases by now.
Health experts in WHO warn that dengue remains a deadly mosquito-borne viral disease in the world. It is the most rapidly spreading mosquito-borne viral disease, with a 30-fold increase in global incidence over the past 50 years. The organization estimates that 50–100 million dengue infections occur each year and that almost half the world’s population lives in countries where dengue is endemic. Currently close to 75 per cent of the global population exposed to dengue live in the Asia-Pacific region.
The disease drains the government and family health budget in every country and as such experts give emphasis on timely and coordinated efforts to control the disease. The WHO global strategy for dengue prevention and control, taken in 2012–2020, was aimed at responding to an emergency situation, to proactive risk assessment, early warning systems and preventive measures guided by entomological as well as epidemiological surveillance. Among the strategies vaccination is considered an important one as it can reduce morbidity and mortality.
According to health experts, a complex disease like dengue demands a multipronged, coordinated and multisectoral response under the leadership of experienced professionals. Primary disease control and municipal health experts must join the team to take an integrated approach to vector control and management.
Social awareness plays a vital role in keeping dengue at bay. Effective communication can bring about the desired behavioral changes in people living in dengue-prone areas. It is said that continued research is needed to find ways to reverse the trend in dengue by improving methods and systems for surveillance, prevention and control. It needs no emphasising that reversing the trend will require commitments and obligations from all stakeholders keeping in view that the disease is a major public-health concern throughout tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world.
Other measures, such as sharing information regarding when Aedes mosquitoes are most active (dawn and dusk) and how to protect oneself when sleeping outdoors can greatly help prevent a breakout. The provision of trained medical staff and appropriate drugs to alleviate symptoms will also help those infected avoid developing a serious illness. Any dengue prevention drive requires proper planning and sustained execution, and it will be up to the relevant authorities to deliver with all seriousness.
Some entomologists of the country however want to believe that the actual number of dengue patients will be higher than that given by the government if patients at private health facilities are added to the official tally. There is a possibility of the number of infected cases going up because of lack of proper coordination among the various government agencies and the two city corporations of Dhaka. We often note the incidence of ‘blame game’ among various agencies, which does not get things done at the field level.
The two city corporation chiefs are crying hoarse for keeping the premises of individual houses clean so that aedes cannot breed in clean stagnant water. But reports of such unclean premises in posh localities like Gulshan, Banani, Baridhara and Uttara are being published in newspapers even when dengue patients are thronging the hospitals. When we talk about all stakeholders, we also mean the citizens being one of them. If the people in general take the responsibility of keeping their own premises like the yards and roofs clean by throwing away all containers where mosquitoes can lay eggs, we believe we shall see substantial improvement of the situation.
