Dengue panics Dhaka people as chikungunya continues

 

An early outbreak of dengue has panicked residents of Dhaka, already faced with the menace of chikungunya. At least 325 people were infected with dengue in three months since April in Dhaka while chikungunya, which also broke out in April, became endemic in Dhaka, according to the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research. Dengue usually breaks out in Bangladesh in July. People panic as both the urban-centric viral diseases are transmitted to humans by the same Aedes mosquito and there are many similarities in their symptoms and treatments, experts said. The institute confirmed 2,028 cases of chikungunya between April and June. Institute officials, however, said that the actual figure was far more, as chikungunya patients mostly remained unreported because they usually did not need hospitalisation. Health officials expressed fear that the monsoon spanning up to August would add horror to about two crore residents of Dhaka as it was the incubation time of Aedes mosquito. Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research senior scientific officer ASM Alamgir said that dengue usually occurred from July at the beginning of the rainy season but this year it made an early outbreak with early rainfall. A report of the institute, the diseases monitoring arm of the government, showed that 175 people were infected with dengue in Dhaka in June. The number was 96 in May and 54 in April. ‘Chikungunya coupled with dengue might make the situation worse this year,’ Alamgir suspected. He said that both dengue and chikungunya had similar symptoms like high fever with joint pain and treatments of the both the diseases were also almost similar. ‘The treatment should be started before diagnosis with paracetamol – be it is a case of chikungunya or dengue – and if fever continues more than five days, blood should be tested to determine if the platelet count is dropping,’ he said. Alamgir said that the platelet count dropped in the case of dengue, but not in the case of chikungunya. Hasan Ali, a resident of Khilgaon in Dhaka, said that he suffered high fever with pain in the joints and thought that he was infected with chikungunya but it was diagnosed as dengue by his doctor. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University professor of virology Saif Ullah Munshi said that laboratory test for chikungunya had no practical impact on the treatment. The director of Disease Control wing of the Directorate General of Health Services, Sanya Tahmina, said that a single bite by an infected Aedes mosquito might transmit dengue and chikungunya to a human body. ‘The best way is to destroy Aedes mosquito’s habitats like water-filled giveaway cans, pots, cups, flower tubs and coconut shells in and around households,’ she said. Sanya said that regular fumigation and spraying larvicide continued with the support of the city corporations, but public awareness was essential for removing giveaway water-filled cans, pots, cups and flower tubs in and around households. Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research director Meerjady Sabrina Flora said that they were concerned about coming days until the end of September as most part of the monsoon was yet to pass. She said that the situation of chikungunya and dengue would improve after monsoon, as monsoon was the breeding period of Aedes mosquito. The Aedes mosquito lives in urban habitats and breeds mostly in man-made clean water-filled containers. Unlike other mosquitoes, Aedes feeds in is day time. Its peak biting periods are early morning and evening before dusk.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net