‘Dingi’ (Dengue) Fever in Lahore

Prof Farakh A Khan

According to WHO (1999) 2.5 billion people are at risk of dengue virus infection in 200 countries. Before 1970 only nine countries had dengue fever. The mortality is about 5%, which can be reduced to 1% with proper treatment in the hospital. Dengue viral infection has become the leading public health problem.

According to Centres for Disease Control and Prevention USA dengue infection places more than 1/3^rd population of the world at risk. Every year 100 million people get infected.

The first case of dengue virus in Pakistan was reported in 1996 and incidence started to rise in 2003-2004 (Shahid, Jamal. Govt blames lifestyle for dengue spread. Dawn. September 22, 2011). The dengue viral attack reached epidemic proportions in Lahore during the summer of 2011. The number of people down with dengue viral infection in Lahore can only be a vague conjecture since we have no system to collect reliable statistics. Our rough estimate is that more than 100,000 people in Lahore have so far been infected if the recorded deaths are to be relied upon. There have been 98 reported deaths allegedly due to dengue haemorrhagic fever in Lahore (Nine more die of dengue in Lahore. OC. The News. September 24, 2011).

First let us analyse what the Pakistani papers have been feeding us in this regard.

Book on Dengue

DENGUE EPIDEMIOLOGY

Dengue is the most rapidly spreading mosquito-borne viral disease in the world. In the last 50 years, incidence has increased 30-fold with increasing geographic expansion to new countries and, in the present decade, from urban to rural settings (Figure 1.1). An estimated 50 million dengue infections occur annually (Figure 1.2) and approximately 2.5 billion people live in dengue endemic countries (1). The 2002 World Health Assembly resolution WHA55.17 (2) urged greater commitment to dengue by WHO and its Member States. Of particular signif cance is the 2005 World Health Assembly resolution WHA58.3 on the revision of the International Health Regulations (IHR) (3),
which includes dengue as an example of a disease that may constitute a public health emergency of international concern with implications for health security due to disruption and rapid epidemic spread beyond national borders.

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