What is Dengue fever
Have you ever heard of dengue fever? It is a viral disease transmitted by a certain mosquitoes. It causes very high fevers and muscle pain. The dengue fever can be deadly in some cases, there was around 20,000 deaths last year. Researchers focused on the disease in Bangkok, mainly on the way the disease is spread. Researchers have come to conclusion that there is a pattern for the spreading of this virus. They found that nearly sixty percent of the fever cases within a 200 meter radius were closely related. Researchers will now use this information to map the location of the cases. They have found that if they know the person who is affected, they are a good indicator of where the new cases will occur. If they can map how the virus spreads this could further knowledge on how to kill the pathogen. Thailand is spraying to kill mosquitos to keep the infection rate low. Also researcher are looking for a vaccine for this virus. I have never heard of this virus so to learn about it is very cool. I did not know this was going on in Thailand, and to learn about it betters our knowledge incase this virus spreads here.
Article:
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/dengue-fever-spreads-neighborly-way
Related article:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673602099646
Being that this is such a lethal disease, killing almost 20,000 people annually, any research that can be done to combat it is a must. The spraying of the mosquitoes is a good start to lowering the infection rate but perhaps a vaccine of sorts could be implemented in order to lessen its effects. That or there could be more widely implemented things like mosquito nets, which are commonly used in Africa to combat malaria.
ReplyDeleteIt is very surprising that not many people have heard of this. For such a disease that causes 200,000 death a year, its not covered by media. I, myself, find my self ashamed not knowing more than I did before I read this article.
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