Hyderabad: Protecting public health is the foremost responsibility of any government. It has often been clearly seen that government systems fail to do so. The prevalence of dengue in Telugu states is increasing day by day and it's a pity that the prevention and control of mosquito-borne diseases are not up to the mark.
About 67 thousand dengue cases have been recorded till the end of October month in the year 2019 and the state of Telangana is in second place in this aspect. The state of Karnataka meanwhile recorded 12 thousand cases.
About three thousand cases were also recorded in the Andhra Pradesh. The results of the National Vector Borne Disease Control Program are not at all promising even though it is implemented at a higher level throughout the nation.
According to the experts, the irresponsible behavior of the officials, lapses in the waste management and lack of awareness among the general public in this aspect are the major facts for the fast-spreading vector-borne diseases.
The series of dengue cases are alarmingly high in the nations of Bangladesh, Nepal, Philippines, and Pakistan along with India day by day. The viruses that spread these types of diseases are crossing the borders of the nations along with the increased trade ties with a high speed as the traveling time between the countries decreased.
The world countries are suffering a lot with Vector-Borne Diseases like dengue, Zika, chikungunya, and yellow fever. These diseases continue to grow high annually because of the adaptive temperatures due to climate changes.
The intensity of the dengue fever is spread among more than 100 countries as it was confined only to 9 nations before 1970. The intensity of this disease is much more seen in the countries of Asia, Africa and lately in Latin America. The dengue has been identified in the decade of 1960 in our country since then it is highly increasing particularly in the last two decades.
Dengue is one of the fastest-spreading diseases worldwide today and the World Health Organization has already warned that dengue is one of the top ten diseases that afflict the world.
Five million people worldwide died in 1918 due to the Spanish flu which is epidemic. Reports warn that the damage could be many times greater when compared to the past if such incidents repeat.
The Global preparedness monitoring board - GPMB constituted with 15 member expert team has released a report recently in the name of "The World at risk" which specifies that the entire world is at a state of high risk from viruses. Newly emerging pathogens are also found and increasing fast along with the old ones.
The impact of these epidemics is very high as they are not only causing deaths but also showing a bad effect on the fields of tourism, trade and economies of the respective nations. In particular, the health system of poor countries is likely to collapse totally. Lack of perfect and specific treatment for dengue fever is a major problem. There is no such vaccine to prevent that virus as of today.
Extensive research is going on to invent a successful vaccine for this. Experts believe that low and middle-income countries are more likely to suffer from these diseases due to a lack of access to basic health care at an appropriate level. US multinational corporation Morgan Stanley predicts that a population of 100 million can be affected by Zika, Dengue, Chicken Gunya, and Yellow Fever by 2080 if the situation continues like this.
Several national and international companies are already engaged in research to invent the vaccine and it may take more time for that. The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) was formed in 2017 by India, Norway, the Bill Milinda Gates Foundation, the World Economic Forum, along with several interesting allies. It is working on inventing and development of the vaccines as a part of the fight against infections.
Sri Lanka has declared a war against Dengue and succeeded to control it recently. It is not at all an impossible task to deal with dengue in a proper manner in our country, where the epidemics like polio and smallpox have been successfully thrown away.
Experts believe that these will be prevented by the integrity of the governments, public consciousness and through the collective effort of public and private institutions.
The main ways to control these pathogens are to maintain proper sanitation, clean the surroundings and also identifying and destroying mosquito production centers. If we can do these three things perfectly the impact can be reduced to more than half.
A war has to be declared on mosquitoes and a special activity at the national level must be undertaken which should be widely propagated among the general public. Control and prevention must be our main goals with the help of high-end strategies!
Read: Hyderabad witnessing spurt in vector, water-borne diseases with onset of monsoon
