Truth About Dengue
➤ The mosquito only transfers the virus from a sick person to a healthy one.
➤ In order to eliminate dengue from the country we need to eliminate the virus and not the mosquito.
➤ We have always had mosquitoes in the country, but not dengue virus.
➤ We can eliminate dengue without eliminating mosquitoes.
➤ We have eliminated malaria without eliminating anopheles mosquitoes.
➤ We have eliminated filariasis without eliminating culex mosquitoes.
➤ The dengue virus can live only in a human or mosquito.
➤ It cannot live outside a human or mosquito.
➤ Then virus increases in large numbers only when living in a human body.
➤ It lives in a human for only about a week.
➤ After that, it needs to find another human or die.
➤ The mosquito only helps the virus to find another human.
➤ If we prevent the last step i.e. transfer of the virus from one human to another human, the virus will die out.
➤ If by some magic we stopped ALL mosquito bites, dengue will disappear in one week.
➤ We cannot easily stop mosquitoes biting everybody because there are so many humans.
➤ But we can stop mosquitoes biting sick people because they are so much fewer in number.
➤ We need not even stop mosquitoes biting ALL sick people.
➤ If we stop mosquitoes biting half the sick people, dengue will disappear in 4 months.
➤ The more sick people we manage to protect from mosquito bites, the quicker the disease will disappear.
Note: Use mosquito nets, mosquito repellents and wear long clothing & socks to fully cover hands and feet, and take every possible precaution against mosquito bites. Dengue mosquitoes are very well adapted to human habitation and are most active during daylight, for approximately two hours after sunrise (6.00 to 8.00 a.m.) and several hours before sunset (4.00 to 6.30 p.m.).
Rational argument of course. But I have two questions.
ReplyDelete1. If this strategy is as straight forward as it seems, why resourceful Singapore has not managed to
control dengue as your Island article implies?
2. Preventing the mosquito from biting sick people would be, as far as my feeble mind can
understand, is by nursing them within mosquito nets. Or is there a better method?
Hi,
DeleteThank you for the comments. Both very good questions.
1. Singapore, although an island, has a problem that we do not have. Singapore is connected to Malaysia by two bridges. Thousand of people cross this bridge everyday and so too mosquitoes. In effect Singapore and Malaysia are epidemiological speaking one unit. What I am suggesting would not work in Singapore. However, even Singapore has finally realised that mosquito control alone will not eliminate dengue. They now (from 2016) recommend that three groups of people use insect repellent. Dengue patients, people who have a dengue patient in the house or a neighbor has dengue and people living in areas declared as a cluster area of dengue.
2. It is true that nursing dengue patients under a mosquito net is useful but has some disadvantages. The aedes mosquito is alleged to bite only during the evening and early morning and not in the night. So only sleeping under a net at night alone is no good. The not so ill dengue patients (who are likely to be at home and not in hospital) would be reluctant to lie in bed under a net as it may be uncomfortable in hot weather. Further the net tends to get lifted often to attend to the patient and for the patients to go to the toilet etc. The best option would be to nurse the patient under a net but not depend on the net alone and use insect repellent as well.
You have only asked about patients at home. There is a similar problem with patients in hospitals where a large number of dengue patients are treated. In some hospitals dengue patients are already nursed under a net. But, is practically impossible to do so in the larger hospitals. The solution in hospitals is to have a dedicated ward for confirmed dengue patients and un-diagnosed fever patients (who may be dengue patients). These wards need to be either air-conditioned or screened. It is also necessary to have an "air lock" between the ward and the outside, as currently seen in intensive care units.