We are posting a series about Mosquito-Borne Diseases, along with our other regular articles. This is the first post in that series.
Disclaimer: This post is for information purposes only. This is not written by any medical doctor or government official or anyone related to the worldwide research on mosquito borne diseases. Neither is this a complete information about dengue and should not be relied on for reference. However, we have taken care to refer to reliable sources on the web, the links to which would be provided at the end of the post.
Let's start with,
Dengue
Dengue is a Spanish word, pronounced 'den-gee'. Though its origins are not clear, it's believed to have been from the Swahili phrase ka dinga pepo, that claims the disease to have been caused by evil eye. It has also been called: dandy fever, breakbone fever, break fever etc.
Dengue is the second disease to be identified as caused by virus. The first was the yellow fever.
It is found in the tropical and subtropical regions, especially,
It is spread through mosquitoes of the Aedes genus, Aedes aegypti most known among them. The mosquitoes of this genus are known to bite during the day, dawn and dusk. Dengue is spread via human to human transmission by the females of aedes.
History
The earliest available record of a case that could have been dengue fever was found in the Chinese medical encyclopaedia from the Jin dynasty (265 to 420AD) which referred to a 'water poison' associated with flying insects.
Later, around 15th to 19th centuries AD, Aedes aegypti (the primary vector) spread to other places from Africa due to globalisation and Slave Trade. There have been descriptions about an epidemic in the 17th century.
The most plausible records of dengue epidemics available, however, from 1779 and 1780, when an epidemic swept across Asia, Africa and North America.
In a 1789 report that the US founding father Benjamin Rush, a physician, wrote on the 1780 epidemic of Philadelphia, he used first the term Breakbone fever. Rush however used the more formal Bilious Remitting Fever as the title of his report.
Confirmation of the transmission of dengue by the aedes mosquitoes came in 1906; and in 1907, dengue was the second ever disease know to be caused by a virus. Though much research has been going on for centuries, the basic understanding about dengue was completed in early 20th century.
Since the 17th century epidemic, dengue epidemics have been quite few till the Second World War. The spread of dengue since World War II is attributed to ecological disruptions. The same reason is given for the spread of different serotypes of dengue to new areas, and also for the emergence of dengue haemorrhagic fever- a more severe and probably fatal variation of the dengue fever.
Sources: Dengue Virus Net, WHO, WebMD, Wikipedia, Medindia, US National Library of Medicine, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (Govt of India)
Disclaimer: This post is for information purposes only. This is not written by any medical doctor or government official or anyone related to the worldwide research on mosquito borne diseases. Neither is this a complete information about dengue and should not be relied on for reference. However, we have taken care to refer to reliable sources on the web, the links to which would be provided at the end of the post.
Let's start with,
Dengue
Dengue is a Spanish word, pronounced 'den-gee'. Though its origins are not clear, it's believed to have been from the Swahili phrase ka dinga pepo, that claims the disease to have been caused by evil eye. It has also been called: dandy fever, breakbone fever, break fever etc.
Dengue is the second disease to be identified as caused by virus. The first was the yellow fever.
It is found in the tropical and subtropical regions, especially,
- the Indian Subcontinent
- some parts of the Caribbean
- some parts of the Central and South Americas
- sub-Saharan Africa
- south east Asia
- the Pacific islands
It is spread through mosquitoes of the Aedes genus, Aedes aegypti most known among them. The mosquitoes of this genus are known to bite during the day, dawn and dusk. Dengue is spread via human to human transmission by the females of aedes.
History
The earliest available record of a case that could have been dengue fever was found in the Chinese medical encyclopaedia from the Jin dynasty (265 to 420AD) which referred to a 'water poison' associated with flying insects.
Later, around 15th to 19th centuries AD, Aedes aegypti (the primary vector) spread to other places from Africa due to globalisation and Slave Trade. There have been descriptions about an epidemic in the 17th century.
The most plausible records of dengue epidemics available, however, from 1779 and 1780, when an epidemic swept across Asia, Africa and North America.
In a 1789 report that the US founding father Benjamin Rush, a physician, wrote on the 1780 epidemic of Philadelphia, he used first the term Breakbone fever. Rush however used the more formal Bilious Remitting Fever as the title of his report.
Confirmation of the transmission of dengue by the aedes mosquitoes came in 1906; and in 1907, dengue was the second ever disease know to be caused by a virus. Though much research has been going on for centuries, the basic understanding about dengue was completed in early 20th century.
Since the 17th century epidemic, dengue epidemics have been quite few till the Second World War. The spread of dengue since World War II is attributed to ecological disruptions. The same reason is given for the spread of different serotypes of dengue to new areas, and also for the emergence of dengue haemorrhagic fever- a more severe and probably fatal variation of the dengue fever.
Sources: Dengue Virus Net, WHO, WebMD, Wikipedia, Medindia, US National Library of Medicine, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (Govt of India)
