Dengue fever is a virus-based
disease spread by mosquitoes. The alternative Name of Dengue fever is “Break
bone fever” Dengue fever is an acute disease that often occurs in tropical
regions and in rare cases, can be life-threatening. The disease is caused by
four closely related viruses of the "Flaviviridae" family, generally transmitted
by several species of mosquitoes, including the "alopictus" species that are
typically most active during the "dawn" and "dusk" hours of the day. Symptoms of
dengue fever include headache, skin rash, muscle soreness and joint pain but
after several days the patient becomes irritable, restless, and sweaty. These
symptoms are followed by a shock -like state. Bleeding may appear as tiny spots
of blood on the skin (petechiae) and larger patches of blood under the skin (ecchymoses).
Mean while, In Pakistan According to current figures from the Ministry of
Health, more then 38 people have died from Dengue fever so far and the number of
infected persons has also risen.
Official information shows 19 deaths in Sindh, 5 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 3 in
Azad Kashmir and Punjab while 4 people have died from Dengue virus in Islamabad.
Cases of Dengue virus are also on the rise and 5713 cases have been registered.
Punjab tops the last with 2783 cases, whereas 2404 Sindh, 286 Islamabad, 227
Khyper Pakhtunkwa and respectively 13 Azad Kashmir cases registered. According
to official data, there are 127,859 doctors, Nurses 69,313 and 12,804 health
facilities in the country to cater for over 170 million people.
Despite the Government’s tall claims of controlling dengue fever, the numbers of
dengue victims are being increasing as compared to the previous years. The
deadly viral disease dengue fever regularly occurs almost every year but still
the authorities have failed to come up with any comprehensive preventive plan to
tackle the fatal disease. According to health experts most dengue infections
result in relatively mild illness, but some can progress to dengue hemorrhage
fever. With dengue hemorrhage fever, the blood vessels start to leak and cause
bleeding from the nose, mouth, and gums. Bruising can be a sign of bleeding
inside the body. The time between the bite of a mosquito carrying dengue virus
and the start of symptoms averages 4 to 6 days, with a range of 3 to 14 days.
According to health experts the dengue fever is caused by the bite of a female
mosquito. The mosquito transmits the disease by biting a person after biting an
infected person. Dengue virus having no proper cure, can only be avoided by
adopting precautionary measures. Health experts believe that the dengue problem
has crept up again because the city administration and provincial health
department did not carry out arrangements and spraying works in localities which
were considered high-risk. They say proper awareness campaigns were also not
undertaken. Meanwhile ministry of Health start campaign against dengue fever but
its not sufficient, we think our authorities should collaborate with
international agencies like WHO, American CDC (centre for disease control)
because they have planned and related latest research kind of dengue virus and
government should increase the health budget specially control these kind of
fever or virus.