Final Blog: Dengue in India

Kristin Nicholson

November 30, 2012

 

In New Delhi, India, an area that is undergoing rapid and disorderly urbanization, there have been reports of a mosquito borne disease called dengue fever. According to the article, this disease was reported in just a handful of countries in the 1950s, and dengue is now endemic in half the world’s nations. The disease is life-threatening to a small percentage of those infected and is accompanied by extreme pain to all that are infected. According to the article, dengue advances to a life-threatening cascade of immune responses known as hemorrhagic or shock dengue in about 1 percent of cases.  High numbers of cases are being reported among tourists, which is causing the spread to other areas of the world. According to the article, health officials in Miami announced a case of locally acquired dengue infection last month. There are many areas present of standing water in India that contribute to the epidemic’s growth. The densely populated and crowded cities due to rapid urbanization are also contributors to this outbreak. Hospitals are overly full and feverish patients are sharing beds and ailing in hallways. An Indian doctor that specializes in tropical disease estimated 37 million dengue infections occurring every year in India, and around 227,500 hospitalizations as a result. In order to control the disease, trucks can be found spewing pesticides against mosquitoes on a regular basis in New Delhi, India.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/07/world/asia/alarm-over-indias-dengue-fever-epidemic.html?pagewanted=all