Home Journal List Journal of Islamic International Medical College Volume-6 Article Details

Dengue Fever Outbreak

Abstract

Dengue fever is fast emerging as one of the common arthropode borne diseases. Viral th aetiology of dengue was established in 20 century but dengue like illness could be traced back 200 years. In 1950s the infection was being reported by 9 countries, today a wide array of countries, report regular outbreaks. Pakistan is one of those countries which have been in the grip of outbreaks since 1990s. First reported epidemic could be traced back to 1994. It is evident that dengue fever is not a very recent phenomena in Pakistan. It has had its history but 2011 witnessed hyperbole and press hype of gigantic magnitude. This created scare and irrational response to the outbreak. Somehow the outbreak was pinned on or attributed to collapse of health services, whereas established wisdom attributes this emergence of dengue fever to uncontrolled population growth, rapid urbanization and slum formation, inappropriate and inadequate waste water management, refugee movement and to erosion of vector control program, non of this falls in the domain of health sector. The hype created by the press this year was a cause of daily headlines on the news channels, resultant response to this outbreak could at best be described as misdirected.

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