Chief Epidemiologist reveals dengue character

The number of dengue patients who have died so far (up to August 3) is 177 while 24,000 dengue cases had been reported during the same period. However, the actual number of dengue patients in the country could be higher since the statistics were based only on those who were hospitalized, Health Ministry Chief Epidemiologist Dr Sudath Peiris said.

Addressing a press briefing at the Government Information Department yesterday Dr Peiris said that Mannar is badly affected by dengue and need intervention of the health authorities. In 2009 there were 35,007 dengue cases. Around 65 Divisional Secretariat divisions have been identified as high risk areas.

According to Dr Peiris there are persons who are infected with dengue virus but without any symptoms. Some persons never develop dengue. Some persons only gets a mild fever but some persons and children die from dengue shock syndrome and dengue hemorrhagic fever even before antibodies start to show up in the blood test. Therefore there is no way of detecting the dengue virus soon after the infection.

Only 5 to 10 percent of dengue patients suffer from DHF. There is no specific vaccine or treatment for dengue in the world. High temperature, humidity and rain provides an ideal environment for dengue mosquitoes to breed and they live for two months (double their normal life time) under these good conditions.

There are two types of dengue mosquitoes and they live on human and animal blood. They rest indoors and outside.

They sting during the day time especially in the mornings and evenings. The egg remain dormant over an year without water and hatch within one or two days on contact with water. The eggs stay in the walls of containers. NG