By CHOR CHEW KANG
Dengue cases gradually increase in our country nowadays. This disease which caused by AEDES mosquitoes could harmful to the national if spread in serious way. Therefore, knowledge and awareness about dengue and AEDES mosquitoes are required by communities in effort to prevent this virus from infecting worse.
Selangor Reached Highest Dengue Rates
Statistics from Ministry of Healthy showed that since January this year, there were 123 fatalities from dengue fever and other related symptoms, among 42,749 dengue fever cases, compared to 36,294 cases with 77 deaths in last year. At the same time, Selangor had the highest number and was the worst hit state with 15,323 cases involving 43 deaths. Pahang saw an increase to 1,397 cases with four deaths up to mid-November this year as compared to 820 cases and two deaths during the same period last year. Other states where deaths occurred this year were Kedah (three), Penang (five), Perak (six), Kuala Lumpur/Putrajaya (six), Negeri Sembilan (seven), Malacca (12), Johor (10), Terengganu (two), Kelantan (11), Sarawak (13) and Sabah (one).
Knowledge about dengue are important for public before we work for prevent it. Dengue fever is an acute viral disease caused by the Flavivirus of the family Flaviviridae. It’s a disease of tropical and subtropical regions that occurs epidemically. It also called “breakbone” fever because it sometimes causes severe joint & muscle pain that feels like bones are breaking, hence the name. The illness is usually self-limiting and can last up to 10 days, but complete recovery can take as long as a month.
DENGUE INFECT THROUGH AEDES BITES
Dengue fever is noncontagious i.e., not an airborne infection (an infected person cannot spread the infection to other persons but can be a source of dengue virus for mosquitoes for about 6 days from the start of symptoms). Dengue virus is transmitted to humans through mosquito bites; the mosquito transmits disease by biting an infected person and then biting someone else. The incubation period (i.e., period from infection till the manifestation of symptoms) is 4 to 6 days, but may vary with a range of 3 to 14 days. This disease is a vector borne infection i.e., mosquito is the vector (carrier) of the virus believed to cause this fever and the vector is common in dengue.
Symptoms of typical (classic) dengue usually start with fever within 5 to 6 days after someone is bitten by an infected mosquito. Symptoms are including:
· High-grade fever.
· Severe headache.
· Severe joint and muscle pain.
· Nausea and vomiting.
· Skin rash – The rash may appear over most of the body 3 to 4 days after fever.
· Bleeding from the nose, gums or under the skin, causing purplish bruises.
PREVENT DENGUE WITH OWN EFFORT
Prevention is basically by:
- Avoiding mosquito bites (by using mosquito repellents or oil of lemon eucalyptus)
- Eliminating pockets of stagnant water that serve as mosquito breeding sites at home, workplaces and their vicinity.
- Not storing water in open containers. Covering all water containers with lids.
- Preventing mosquito entry by keeping doors closed and windows screened.
- Wearing protective clothing like long-sleeved shirts, long pants, socks and shoes when outdoors.
- Using mosquito nets at home.
- Scrubbing and cleaning margins of containers used for water (to dislodge the eggs of Aedes aegypti)
- Covering overhead tank to prevent access to mosquitoes.
- Aedes mosquitoes usually bite during the day; therefore, special precautions should be taken during early morning hours before day break and in the late afternoon before dark.
- There is no commercially available dengue vaccine (for dengue Flavivirus).
Please visit this website for more information:
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs117/en/
Visit this website for dengue’s symptoms and prevention:
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