| 2011 Dengue Outbreak in Pakistan | |
|---|---|
| Disease | Dengue fever |
| Location | Punjab, Pakistan |
| Date | 2011 |
| Confirmed cases | 14,000+ |
Deaths | 300+ |
Dengue fever is an important infectious disease in Pakistan with increasingly frequent epidemics. [1] Despite the efforts of the Government of Pakistan, especially in Punjab, the high cost of prevention has limited the ability of Pakistan to control epidemics. [2] In Pakistan, in the summer of 2011, more than 300 people died of Dengue fever. The prevalence of the disease was over 14,000. The outbreaks occurred mostly in the Lahore area, Punjab, Pakistan.
In November 2010, more than 21,204 people were diagnosed with dengue fever. [3] Those infected were mainly from Punjab, Pakistan. Patients were admitted to dedicated wards in government hospitals. The severity of the epidemic was greatest in Lahore. [4]
The secretary of the Punjab Mineral Development Corporation, Ataullah Siddiqui and Ghiasuddin, a member of the Punjab Public Service Commission died as a result of the dengue fever. [5] [6] [7] On 30 September 2011, the Punjab MPA Mumtaz Jajja also died of dengue fever. [8] Eight Chinese engineers were taken ill. [9] [10]
A special tribunal for Dengue fever was empanelled. The chairman of the Dengue Emergency Response Committee was Khawaja Saad Rafique. The Government of Pakistan and the provincial Government of Punjab (Pakistan) took preventive measures to reduce the spread of the disease. A hotline called the "Punjab Health Line Project For Dengue" was opened to facilitate knowledge of the signs and symptoms of dengue fever, provide help people affected and identify areas where the epidemic may have spread. Teams of workers fumigated areas, particularly educational institutions and rural areas where the Aedes mosquito was present. In early September 2011, the Government of Punjab (Pakistan) ordered the schools, colleges and universities in Punjab, Pakistan to close for 10 days for intensive fogging to eliminate the vector mosquitoes. [11] [12] [13] [14] Article 144 was implemented in Lahore city for the prevention of dengue fever. After an appeal by the Government of Punjab (Pakistan), private hospitals agreed to provide free treatment to dengue patients. [15] During dengue fever epidemics, the Pakistan army created camps in Lahore city. The Pakistan Air Force has also assisted the government. [16] [17] The Punjab government worked to increase public awareness. [18] Local authorities in Hyderabad held a seminar. [19] Other programs were held in educational facilities. A 24-hour government sponsored online service, the "Punjab Health Line Project For Dengue" provided information about the disease and its prevention. [20]
In 2011, the Government of Sri Lanka gave medicines and staff to Punjab. [21] [22] A group of 12 doctors from Sri Lanka came to Lahore to assist. [23] [24] [25] The Indonesian government dispatched a medical team of twenty to assist the Pakistani authorities. [26] The World Health Organization provided technical guidance along with support for provincial and territorial dengue monitoring and coordination committees. [27]
Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains—particularly in the back—and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. In about 15% of people, within a day of improving the fever comes back, abdominal pain occurs, and liver damage begins causing yellow skin. If this occurs, the risk of bleeding and kidney problems is increased.
Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne disease caused by dengue virus, prevalent in tropical and subtropical areas. It is frequently asymptomatic; if symptoms appear they typically begin 3 to 14 days after infection. These may include a high fever, headache, vomiting, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin itching and skin rash. Recovery generally takes two to seven days. In a small proportion of cases, the disease develops into severe dengue with bleeding, low levels of blood platelets, blood plasma leakage, and dangerously low blood pressure.
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In the 2006 dengue outbreak in India, cases of dengue fever were reported first from New Delhi in early September and by the end of September other states also started to report deaths. At least 3613 confirmed cases of dengue fever were reported and over 50 people died in the outbreak.
The 2006 dengue outbreak in Pakistan was at the time the worst on record. There were 1931 lab-confirmed cases, and 41 confirmed deaths, according to the World Health Organization Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean. Other sources report a death toll of 52.
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In the 2013 dengue outbreak in Singapore, a significant rise in the number of dengue fever cases was reported in Singapore. The outbreak began in January, with the number of infections beginning to surge in April, before eventually reaching a peak of 842 dengue cases in the week of 16–22 June 2013. This figure was far beyond the highest number of cases per week in the previous three years. Although there were concerns that the rate of infection could exceed 1,000 per week, these fears did not materialize.
In October 2013, there was an outbreak of Zika fever in French Polynesia, the first outbreak of several Zika outbreaks across Oceania. With 8,723 cases reported, it was the largest outbreak of Zika fever before the outbreak in the Americas that began in April 2015. An earlier outbreak occurred on Yap Island in the Federated States of Micronesia in 2007, but it is thought that the 2013–2014 outbreak involved an independent introduction of the Zika virus from Southeast Asia. Investigators suggested that the outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases in the Pacific from 2012 to 2014 were "the early stages of a wave that will continue for several years", particularly because of their vulnerability to infectious diseases stemming from isolation and immunologically naive populations.
In the 2017 dengue outbreak in Peshawar, Pakistan, hundreds of incidents of dengue fever were reported in Peshawar in mid-2017. Initially, according to the health department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 4,320 suspected cases were received by Khyber Teaching Hospital Peshawar and 831 were positive. About a dozen people died of dengue, starting in July. Punjab healthcare experts and Peshawar experts worked together to control the dengue epidemic, using health workers going door-to-door to educate residents, as well as fumigation of the city to suppress mosquito populations.
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The dengue pandemic in Sri Lanka is part of the tropical disease dengue fever pandemic. Dengue fever is caused by Dengue virus, first recorded in the 1960s. It is not a native disease in this island. Present-day dengue has become a major public health problem. Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus are both mosquito species native to Sri Lanka. However, the disease did not emerge until the early 1960s. Dengue was first serologically confirmed in the country in 1962. A Chikungunya outbreak followed in 1965. In the early 1970s two type of dengue dominated in Sri Lanka: DENV-1 type1 and DENV-2 type 2. A total of 51 cases and 15 deaths were reported in 1965–1968. From 1989 onward, dengue fever has become endemic in Sri Lanka.
In 2017, a rise in the number of dengue fever cases was reported on the island country of Sri Lanka. The peak of the outbreak was in the mid-year monsoon season, where more than 40,000 cases in July marked a record far exceeding historical highs. Year-end total dengue cases rose to 186,101.
The 1906 malaria outbreak in Ceylon, was a major malaria outbreak in Ceylon during the early twentieth century. The first cases were reported in the early 1900s but not officially recorded until 1906. Malaria has been prevalent on the island since the 3rd century B.C. Malaria is caused by single-cell microorganisms of Plasmodium group. This disease is commonly spread by the female Anopheles mosquito. Most Anopheles mosquito species are native in Sri Lanka. There are four main mosquito species on the island including: Anopheles culicifacies, Anopheles subpictus, Anopheles annularis and Anopheles varuna.
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