Be aware, Act upon and Be protected!

The number of cases of dengue in March, April and May of 2020 is much less than that of the same period in previous years. It is thought that this is due to people remaining indoors within their resident areas due to the COVID-19 crisis and thereby not being exposed to infected Aedes mosquito bites. With this result in hand, it is a good time to take this opportunity to adopt and continue the behaviours learnt during the Corona pandemic to help curb future dengue outbreaks.

Table 1. Dengue cases in 2020 compared to previous years (Source: Official website of the Epidemiology Unit, Ministry of Health).

Dengue is an infection caused by a virus that is transported between humans by an infected Aedes mosquito. This mosquito lives within our households and environments in habitats that we provide for them such as empty container, tires, roof gutters etc… Without the mosquito Dengue cannot spread from one human to another. So it is most important to prevent the breeding of the mosquitoes. This can be done by regularly eliminating breeding places from our premises. From the data gathered by entomological (mosquito and larvae) surveys in the past few months, construction sites, schools and organisational premises have been identified as the places which are most likely to have mosquito breeding sites.

There are several methods to prevent dengue. These include the elimination of breeding sites, use of repellents to prevent mosquito bites, use of chemicals to prevent maturation of mosquito larvae and use of thermal fogging to control adult mosquitoes.

When the virus enters a human, symptoms usually appear within a week. High fever, severe headache and pain behind the eyes, muscle and joint pain, nausea and vomiting, red spots on the skin and bleeding tendencies (eg: gum bleeding) are the symptoms to watch out for in Dengue fever. If fever continues for more than two days, a qualified doctor must be consulted and a full blood count must be done according to medical advice. Danger/ warning signs that must be identified are; severe stomach ache, continuous vomiting, bleeding (from gums or nose, dark vomitus and black coloured faeces) and reduced amount of urine or not passing urine for more than 6 hours. If a fever patient has any of these signs they must be taken to a doctor immediately. Also, when dengue fever is suspected, we should not use anything other than paracetamol to reduce the fever. Medicines such as mefenamic acid, ibuprofen and diclofenac sodium can cause complications of Dengue haemorrhagic fever.

Early identification and prompt treatment of dengue fever can minimize the morbidity and mortality due to dengue.