WHO sounds an alarm bell on dengue!

– Thinakkural Editorial

(September 28, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) World Health Organization has sounded an alarm bell that 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.

A dengue epidemic swept across the region between 1991and 2004. It peaked with 350,000 cases in 1998 according to WHO statistics. Of the 2.5 billion people at risk globally, 1.8 billion live in the Western Pacific.

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.

Dengue is a man-made problem which is linked to globalization, rapid, unplanned and unregulated urban development, improper water storage and unsatisfactory sanitary conditions which provide breeding grounds for the mosquito. Movement of people to and from urban areas is another major factor.

WHO has requested the member states to take tangible steps towards implementing the Asia-Pacific Dengue Strategic Plan, especially in the area of strengthening the system for prediction, early detection, cross-border surveillance, preparedness and early response to outbreaks.

Dr.Kariyawasam, Chief Medical Officer of the Colombo Municipal Council, has observed that Colombo will be a city of patients, if appropriate plans are not implemented properly.

(An English translation of the Editorial in Thinakkural,a Tamil daily based in Colombo)- Sri Lanka Guardian