Asia-Pacific Daily Report

Dengue fever is quickly spreading in India's capital, New Delhi, which has prompted Delhi Mayor Kanwar Sain to order health officers to take strict action to curb the transmission of the vector-borne disease, Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) reported on Friday (November 6). According to the Chief Medical Officer at the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), N K Yadav, 26 new cases were confirmed on Thursday (November 5), which brought the total number of cases to 464. Among the total cases, IANS noted Sain saying that 380 cases were from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi's jurisdiction. Also, two deaths, a 15-year-old boy and a nine year-old boy, have been reported this season, both Press TV and IANS stated. At a meeting to analyze the dengue fever situation in the city, and also the measures being implemented to check the spread of the disease, Sain presented a pamphlet containing information to educate citizens on monitoring the breeding of the mosquito responsible for causing the virus. According to Sain, the pamphlets will be distributed to citizens on Saturday and Sunday (November 7-8). Since the pamphlets are meant to inform citizens to be aware of the mosquito and prevent breeding grounds, those who are found to have active breeding grounds will be penalized immediately as per the provisions of the DMC Act. Other measures include Sain providing all 12 municipal zones with fogging machines. Yadav announced at the meeting that as of Saturday (October 31), MCD's domestic breeding checkers had visited 22,074,365 houses and had discovered 44,107 houses containing breeding grounds. Yadav was quoted by IANS as saying, "legal notices were issued to 45,168 persons and prosecution action was initiated against 4,953 people." Compared to last year Indian health officials noted that the current dengue fever case total was much lower than the same time last year. Press TV reported that as of Sunday (November 1), 366 dengue fever cases had been counted, which was significantly lower than the 1,070 cases recorded the same time in 2008. The decreasing number in cases could be attributed to higher temperatures due to low rainfalls during the monsoon season, which in turn, reduce breeding of mosquitoes. In other parts of Southeast Asia, the Philippines has tallied 190 cases, including three deaths. Meanwhile, Vietnamese officials are worried about a possible large-scale outbreak in the country. Vietnamese officials have already reported 72,155 dengue fever cases, including 58 deaths, which is a 7.1 percent increase from the same period last year. Press TV said that despite the growing number of cases, authorities claim the situation is under control and there is no reason to panic. Dengue fever, which is carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, causes symptoms of high fever, rashes, headaches and muscle and joint pain. Most dengue infections cause relatively mild illness, but some can progress into dengue hemorrhagic fever, which is a severe and often fatal complication of the disease.

Source:

· http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?col=§ion=international&xfi...

· http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=110192§ionid=3510212

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