WHO says nearly two billion at risk from dengue in Asia
Nearly two billion people in the Asia-Pacific region will be at risk
from dengue fever unless governments do more to fight the debilitating
disease, the World Health Organisation said .
The UN agency said it would ask the 37 countries and territories that
make up its Western Pacific section to endorse a regional strategy for
dealing with the mosquito-borne virus, which it deems among 40 emerging
diseases of global importance. A dengue pandemic swept across the region
between 1991 and 2004, peaking with 350,000 cases in 1998, the WHO said.
Of the 2.5 billion people at risk globally, 1.8 billion live in the
Western Pacific.
Ninety-eight percent of all dengue cases - and 99 percent of all
dengue deaths - in the region between 2001 and 2004 were accounted for
by Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, French
Polynesia, Fiji, New Caledonia and China. The WHO said in discussion
papers at a regional committee meeting in Manila that dengue "has
greatly expanded over the last three decades" owing to changes in
weather patterns that expanded the habitat of the Aedes aegypti mosquito
which carries the virus.
"Human practices such as rainwater harvesting and inappropriate
disposal of used tyres, plastic containers and metal cans have created
new opportunities for vector breeding."
Other key factors were migration, demographic changes, and rapid
growth in urban areas."Dengue is a neglected disease that gains
attention during an epidemic," it said.
MANILA, Tuesday, AFP
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