10/8/2014
NEW DELHI – The number of dengue cases in India is 282 times higher than the official count, said a study published on Tuesday that put the annual cases at 6 million against the 20,000 reported by the government.
The report, released by the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (AJTMH), warns about a lack of reliable data on the incidence of dengue in the Asian country due to the “gap” between the information collected and that which is finally reported.
The study was conducted by researchers of the Brandeis University in Massachusetts, the International Clinical Epidemiology Network (INCLEN) in New Delhi and the Centre for Research in Medical Entomology (CRME) in Madural (India).
Experts say that out of the 100 nations affected by this potentially fatal disease which has no specific treatment, India is the country with the maximum number of cases.
The symptoms of the mosquito-borne disease include high fever, joint pains and nausea.
The study cautions of an increase in the magnitude and frequency of the outbreaks in India in recent decades.
With the exception of a slight fall in 2011, dengue’s incidence rate has not stopped growing in recent years.
Abundant rainfall in the current monsoon season create ideal conditions for the spread of dengue since stagnant water is a breeding ground for mosquitoes, the disease’s carriers.
In fact, heavy rainfall in the Asian country in 2011 -the highest in two decades- led to more than 55,000 cases being reported, more than double the yearly average.
The total annual cost of the disease is about $1.1 billion, of which $548 million go to medical expenses, according to the report.
As in the case of dengue, many malaria cases are left out of the official count, which means that the death toll is 13 times higher than that reported by the government, according to a study published in the medical journal The Lancet a few years back.
source
NEW DELHI – The number of dengue cases in India is 282 times higher than the official count, said a study published on Tuesday that put the annual cases at 6 million against the 20,000 reported by the government.
The report, released by the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (AJTMH), warns about a lack of reliable data on the incidence of dengue in the Asian country due to the “gap” between the information collected and that which is finally reported.
The study was conducted by researchers of the Brandeis University in Massachusetts, the International Clinical Epidemiology Network (INCLEN) in New Delhi and the Centre for Research in Medical Entomology (CRME) in Madural (India).
Experts say that out of the 100 nations affected by this potentially fatal disease which has no specific treatment, India is the country with the maximum number of cases.
The symptoms of the mosquito-borne disease include high fever, joint pains and nausea.
The study cautions of an increase in the magnitude and frequency of the outbreaks in India in recent decades.
With the exception of a slight fall in 2011, dengue’s incidence rate has not stopped growing in recent years.
Abundant rainfall in the current monsoon season create ideal conditions for the spread of dengue since stagnant water is a breeding ground for mosquitoes, the disease’s carriers.
In fact, heavy rainfall in the Asian country in 2011 -the highest in two decades- led to more than 55,000 cases being reported, more than double the yearly average.
The total annual cost of the disease is about $1.1 billion, of which $548 million go to medical expenses, according to the report.
As in the case of dengue, many malaria cases are left out of the official count, which means that the death toll is 13 times higher than that reported by the government, according to a study published in the medical journal The Lancet a few years back.
source
No comments:
Post a Comment