Dengue fever is back and has already taken 11 lives in Thailand, raising concerns that the incoming rainy season will bring even more havoc to the outbreak, the Ministry of Public Health revealed on Monday.
There are currently two factors contributing to this sharp increase, according to Suwanchai Watthanathingcharoen, director-general of the Department of Disease Control at the Ministry of Public Health.
- Heavy rain leading to waterlogging in low-lying areas, becoming a breeding ground for Aedes mosquitoes – the female infective mosquitoes carrying Dengue viruses
- The outbreak itself is entering the seasonal rainy “epidemic” spreading phase
According to Suwanchai, the department sent a team to control the spread of the disease by haze spraying in areas known to carry adult Aedes mosquitoes with the disease.
They are coordinating with locals to destroy breeding grounds of Aedes larvae in houses, community areas, temples, and so forth, he added.
With every new patient found to have been infected with the Dengue fever, the communities surrounding the area will destroy adult mosquitoes within a 100-200 meter range of the area.
In addition to these control measures, the director-general emphasised that this will be a concerted effort concerning both public officials and local communities alike in combating and curtailing the outbreak, urging people to jointly destroy larvae breeding grounds and laying mosquito nets to prevent mosquito bites as well.
The Northeast region is currently the most vulnerable as it has a large population that is more prone to the spread of the disease, according to the ministry.
The region has an infection rate of 25.67 patients per 100,000 population which is the highest in the country, according to Thailand’s Bureau of Epidemiology in Dengue fever.
During January 1 and May 25, 2020, the Bureau reported 14,136 patients with Dengue fever, which accounts for 21.28 per 100,000 population.
The provinces with the highest number of patients per hundred thousand are Rayong, with 73 per 100,000; Chaiyaphum, with 58.13 per 100,000; Khon Kaen, with 53.83 per 100,000; Mae Hong Son, with 37.87 per 100,000; and Nakhon Ratchasima, with 36.92 per 100,000.
Of an estimated 2.5 billion people at risk for Dengue globally, about 70 per cent live in Asia Pacific countries and mainly in Southeast Asia, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Many Asian countries will experience unusually high numbers of Dengue cases in 2020 with the rainy season approaching.
WHO also encouraged governments and communities to reduce the spread of Dengue by properly informing the public on how to clean up mosquito breeding sites.
Dengue is one of the fastest-spreading mosquito-borne diseases which WHO considers as a “major public health concern” as it can develop into a fatal form of Dengue called “severe Dengue”. In the past 50 years, incidences of Dengue fever has increased 30-fold.
Credit: https://www.thairath.co.th/news/local/northeast/1858103
