Climate change behind dengue fever outbreak..2.5 bn people at risk

07 / 10 / 2019

By Marwa Nassar - -

Climate change has secured proper climate for the virus-borne mosquito species to reproduce, thus causing the outbreak of dengue fever outbreak. About 2.5 billion people are at risk for dengue, 70 percent of them are in the Asia-Pacific region, according to the United Nations Development Program estimates.

Changing patterns of rainfall, humidity and temperature linked to climate change are leading to longer breeding spells for the mosquito species that carries the virus, and shortening disease incubation times.

This is causing dengue epidemics to become much more unpredictable in terms of when and where they occur, and their scale, overwhelming health systems.

Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral infection with flu-like symptoms, which can cause lethal complications especially among children, the elderly, and pregnant women.

Rapid and unplanned urbanization, living conditions for the urban poor and lack of sanitation are all contributing to a surge in numbers of people catching vector-borne diseases such as dengue.

In Bangladesh, a dengue fever outbreak was dire. There was panic, with people urgently seeking blood, information on which hospitals had available beds, and complaining about the rising prices of mosquito repellants. On a single day in August, nearly 2,500 dengue patients were admitted in hospitals in the country, breaking all records. It has been the worst outbreak in the country’s history.

Governments are responding to these outbreaks the best they can. Emphasis has been on effective vector control, mass media awareness campaigns, and strengthening health systems to deal with the increasing numbers of patients.

In the last 50 years there’s been a 30-fold increase in dengue cases. Philippines declared an epidemic, with 622 deaths, and dengue affecting a staggering 146,000 people.In Thailand this year, the numbers doubled from last year to 20,000 cases, with children suffering the most. From January to August, 200,000 people in Sri Lanka contracted dengue, and more than 100 died.

There is no specific treatment for dengue, but early detection and proper medical care can lower mortality to below one percent.

Viet Nam is pioneering a system that can serve as a model for other countries. The country is using satellite data on precipitation and atmospheric pressure, combined with health and water information to produce a dengue-forecasting model designed for this new reality.

The initiative is supported by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the World Health Organization, the UK Space Agency, HR Wallingford, the London School for Hygiene and Tropical Medicines, the UK Meteorological Office and Oxford Policy Management.

The innovative approach looks at dengue and the health effects of climate change as an interaction between the environment and public health.

When complete, beneficiaries will be able to receive alerts for dengue outbreaks, and policy-makers will be able to look at assessments of vector-borne disease risk under future climate and land-use change scenarios.

A recent study estimated that two billion more people could be affected by dengue by the year 2080, and that increase comes largely comes from population growth in areas already at risk.