Dengue epidemic

The outbreak of “Dengue Fever” in parts of Pakistan is now becoming a countrywide epidemic. Quite a few bloggers have posted about it including one who lost his cousin to a dengue infection. Though nobody I know personally has died or been infected, it is alarming to know that death and disease are right here. So close in fact that there have been over 20 confirmed cases in Rawalpindi/Islamabad alone.

With the state of healthcare in this country, don’t even think about getting sick enough to have to be treated by someone. It doesn’t matter how expensive a treatment you can afford, in the end, you’ll realize that not going to a doctor is the best cure. Anyway, for something as serious as this, you’ll have to be extremely lucky to get proper treatment and be cured.

What may be partly to blame for this outbreak is a delayed winter. By this time of the year, we are usually wearing sweaters and jackets yet even in Islamabad, it is still so warm that one can easily roam around in a t-shirt. This heat, combined with the brief monsoon, has resulted in a swarm of mosquitos everywhere, many of which are carriers of the deadly dengue virus.

I think the best hope is to do all you can to stop being bitten and wait for winter to set in. The above-mentioned blog post, as well as many other sites on the net, which I didn’t have time to check, offer a number of suggestions and preventive measures. Good luck to all.

And what’s responsible for the heat? My best guesses are pollution and construction. Both are spreading fast and not even a clean and organized city (for Pakistan) like Islamabad is spared.

Some useful blogs and sites:
all things Pakistan: Dengue fever toll rising
Light Within: Dengue fever on the rise
CDC Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases: Dengue fever fact sheet