A European friend wanted to travel to Kathmandu a few months ago when I accidentally met him in a doctor's clinic where he was taking precautionary medicine and injection for dengue and malaria. It is a well-known fact that Dengue cases are rising in the Kathmandu Valley and elsewhere.
Dengue, a mosquito-borne disease, is spread through the bite of an infected Aedes species mosquito with four types: DENV-1 to DENV-4. The identical infected mosquito is also reported to transmit chikungunya, yellow fever and Zika viruses based on reports by the WHO. The incubation period of dengue is between 3-10 days, showing very little or no symptoms like fever, digestive problems, and fatigue. Therefore, it seems that dengue cannot spread directly from person to person, like the COVID virus. However, someone infected can infect mosquitoes, which can infect another human. According to Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, almost forty per cent of the world's population lives in areas at risk of dengue with over 100 countries.
Climate plays one of the crucial drivers of the current distribution and incidence of dengue. However, dengue in Nepal is found regardless of climate and weather situations. Dengue is not necessary to spread because of the monsoon season, but the country has also seen the spread in pre- and post-monsoon seasons. Based on the data from EDCD (Epidemiology and Disease Control Division), dengue cases are rising and have been reported in more than sixty districts this year alone. Besides climate, there are other socioeconomic factors at play as well. Examples include unplanned urbanisation, travel, increase in breeding sites, intensive farming, dams, irrigation, poor housing in urban areas and improper solid waste management.
Several campaigns against dengue from 2010 onwards have not been very effective because of a lack of active public participation. Raising awareness and allocating a budget is one thing, but the actual implementation must come from people and the community. Unfortunately, our typical Nepalese nature is not to take things seriously until they battered us.
It isn't easy to eliminate Aedes mosquitoes because of their adaptive nature. However, introducing an "early warning system" can be used to predict and prevent dengue outbreaks with public health interventions. The awareness campaign can start in schools where learners can be taught effective mosquito and repellent strategies. Some preventive measures can include: keeping water containers adequately covered to prevent mosquitoes from entering, regularly cleaning spaces where water is logged and becomes a breeding ground, wearing clothes with full sleeves, or regularly cleaning nearby areas where mosquito eggs might be rotting.
Published: The Himalayan Times
Nepal's leading daily newspaper
