WHO warns dengue fever outbreak could be worst to hit Asia in decade
Margie Mason
VIETNAM: Dengue fever is raging across Southeast Asia,
prompting the World Health Organization to warn that the region could
face the worst outbreak of the mosquito-borne virus in nearly a decade.
The disease, sometimes called the “bone breaker” illness because of
the excruciating joint pain it causes, has flared across the region from
ultramodern Singapore to poor Vietnam. There are four different types of
dengue, and none have a cure or vaccine.
Cambodia is currently one of the most worrisome spots, where the
disease has attacked about 25,000 people
Dengue fever patient Nguyen Thi Hue is seen at Dong Da General
Hospital in Hanoi. |
and killed nearly 300 children under age 15 so far this year.
That’s about three times more than the number of cases for all of 2005,
according to WHO.
Sick children have overwhelmed ill-equipped hospitals there, forcing
babies burning up with fever to wait for beds outside with IV drips
attached to their arms.
The last major outbreak to hit Southeast Asia was in 1998, when about
350,000 cases were reported regionwide, including nearly 1,500 deaths.
Indonesia and Thailand were not included in that tally.
John Ehrenberg, WHO’s regional adviser on vector borne diseases, said
it could potentially reach that level again this year.
“It looks like it might be a bad year,” he said. “I think we’re in
the building-up stage, but it could very well peak by August or
September.” Malaysia has seen a 50 percent jump in cases this year over
the same period in 2006, with more than 1,000 patients admitted every
week for the past month and 56 deaths recorded through June, according
to Health Ministry figures.
In Indonesia, more than 100,000 infections have been reported this
year, including 1,100 deaths. That compares to 114,000 cases and the
same number of fatalities for all of 2006, said Nyoman Kandun, a senior
Health Ministry official who predicted the number will hit 200,000 by
year’s end.
More than a dozen children infected with dengue filled beds in
Jakarta’s Tarakan Hospital. Some had IV drips in their hands while
others had tubes coming from their noses.
Muhammad
Wildan, 5, was hospitalized last week and remained in critical condition
due to internal bleeding. Doctors said he’s lucky his family did not
wait any longer to bring him in.
“It did not come to us that it was dengue,” said Padmi Sari, the
boy’s grandmother. “We thought it was just a common fever.” Singapore,
known for its spotless streets and cutting-edge health facilities, has
also not escaped dengue this year. The government has reported nearly
5,000 cases and at least three deaths.
Early rains also caused a surge in cases in Thailand with more than
20,000 cases reported through June, including 17 deaths, officials said.
In Vietnam, which also typically logs a high number of annual cases,
health officials have seen a 40 percent increase over last year
reporting more than 33,000 infections this year and 32 deaths.
In addition to joint pain, rashes, nausea, severe headaches and high
fever that typically accompany the disease, patients stricken with a
more serious form, called dengue hemorrhagic fever, can experience
internal bleeding, liver enlargement and circulatory shut down.
“You don’t want to have people staying at home and starting to
bleed,” Ehrenberg said. “By the time they go to the hospital they’re in
shock and they will die.”
The disease is not nearly as lethal as malaria, which kills more than
1 million people annually. But WHO estimates dengue infects up to 50
million people every year worldwide, mostly in Asia and Latin America.
About a half million of those cases are severe, and some 19,000
deaths were recorded in 2002. “We always think next year it will get
better, but we always find next year it gets worse,” said Kroeger Axel,
a dengue research coordinator at the WHO in Geneva. “There’s a very
clear upward trend.”
He said outbreaks run in cycles, occurring roughly every four years.
Mosquitoes breed in stagnant pools of water ranging from flower pots to
old tires, and residents across the region are urged to avoid letting
water collect near houses.
AP |