While the world quivers over a potential Swine Flu pandemic, a far deadlier outbreak of dengue fever has gone comparatively under-reported in South America and Australia.
Hundreds of thousands have been infected in South America, and in Australia the outbreak is being called the worst seen in 50 years. While the swine flu scare may be an overreaction in comparison, both outbreaks do highlight a clear link between environmental degradation and the spread of disease.
By the time all is said and done, this year’s dengue fever outbreak in South America might be considered one of the worst viral epidemics ever recorded. In Bolivia alone, there were at least 55,000 suspected cases by mid-April. Paraguay and Argentina were also hard hit, but the disease ran most rampant in Brazil, where a whopping 150,000 people were infected with the life threatening disease.
Meanwhile, in Australia, where there are tighter controls in place to help prevent such outbreaks, over 1,000 people were still confirmed as being infected with dengue fever this year. That surpasses the previous record, which was set way back in 1953. Even more foreboding, the outbreak in 1953 continued for several years, and anecdotal evidence suggests that as many as 15,000 people may have been infected over that period of time. Thus, there are concerns that this year’s outbreak may be an indication of things to come.
As weather cools in the Southern Hemisphere, concerns about the outbreak shift toward the Northern Hemisphere, where the changing seasons could bring similar outbreaks. In fact, just last year there were over one million reported cases of dengue fever in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the Pan American Health Organization. If the epidemic in South America is any indication, this summer could be even worse.
Dengue Fever is a mosquito-borne disease which mostly effects those living in lowland tropical regions. Unlike malaria, which is more prevalent in rural areas, dengue fever is spread via mosquitoes that thrive in highly populated urban environments. There are at least four known strains of dengue fever. If a person recovers from one strain, they become immune to that strain only. And in fact, catching one strain is likely to increase the risk of catching one of the others.
The worst form of the fever can cause severe hemorrhaging from the nose and ears, as the disease eats away at the circulatory system and internal organs. Although if diagnosed early the disease is rarely fatal, it does lead to death if left untreated. Furthermore, there are no anti-viral medications for dengue fever.
Reasons for this year’s heightened pandemic are likely linked to global warming and climate change. As temperatures rise and the durations of warmer seasons increase, it allows for a longer and more unpredictable mosquito season. Meanwhile, this year’s headline-grabbing pandemic of swine flu has also been linked to environmental concerns. Deplorable conditions in third world factory farms likely played a crucial role in the spread and development of that disease.
Until those larger environmental concerns are addressed, it’s more likely that outbreaks such as these will continue to increase in frequency.
Image Credit: James Jordan on Flickr under a Creative Commons License
About Bryan Nelson
The brit met office has issued a graph, it shows the global tempuerature DROPPING since the year 2000,
I am in England at the moment, the wind is still COOL, this is the middle of may 2009.
I dont think we have global warming now, I think the planet is into one of its regular cooling periods.
It is interesting to me that the whole world seems to be so up in arms about the H1N1 virus while Dengue and Malaria, for instance, continue to rage on causing considerably more morbidity and mortality than the so-called Swine Flu.
Imagine too that the H1N1 virus has sickened less people than even the ordinary flu bug, from all reports.
Of course, I understand that the unknown and the unpredictable can be more scary that the danger in front of us. But we are rational beings and should react to situations accordingly. Therefore, we ought to be just as concerned about the spread of Dengue from Central America into the Caribbean archipelago as we are about H1N1.
M. Israel
Environmental Health Officer
@ first poster
Global warming will cause England to become a colder place. This is because the gulf stream is affected by global warming and with no gulf stream there is no warm temperatures in England!
Dengue has been a big problem in my country, we regularly have outbreak of it.
(linkback) Worry or Relax? Dengue Fever Outbreak Far Worse Than Swine Flu [VOTE] – http://www.pikk.com/7ab79
Wow, that is scary dude!
http://www.whos-watching.se.tc
@pikestaff – classic confusion between weather (cold spells for instance) and climate (trends across decades). We can expect all kinds of different weather – no matter what happens with climate. But dengue is spreading because climate is warming up and the mosquitos’ range is increasing. It would be nice if it wasn’t really happening. But it is.
@pikestaff – Thank you for stepping outside this morning and completely disproving the mountain of rigorous scientific evidence for global warming. We can all rest easy now.
I think it is more than a coincidence we are having all of these outbreaks with human and diseases affecting trees and our environment.
One or two outbreaks maybe but no I don’t believe this is natural.
How easy would it be to bring billions of mosquito larva to the US in a water bottle same with other organizims.
Akums Razor
It would be so easy and you can see the effect
“highlight a clear link between environmental degradation and the spread of disease.”
It is interesting considering that the dengue’s mosquito only reproduces on clean water enviroments.
For the most part, “clean water” means rain water collected for domestic use. It is when infrastructure is poor – as in inadequate pipe-borne water – and people are forced to horde water for drinking, cooking and bathing that mosquitoes find ample containers in which to breed.
Bryan, this is a great article and have linked to on a high traffic site where I post. Until they reinvented the wheel (redefining a Pandemic) – we had three global Pandemics – Malaria, Dengue Fever, and TB. I was getting figures on Dengue Fever up to 50,000,000 in some years. I was mystified why this disease has almost been ignored in the media. It is life threatening, and the symptoms are very bad. We have a type of global racsim, sad but true. If it is not Caucausian (I am and also Native American) it doesn’t count. Long ago we began to see this in poor countries in Africa and the Middle East and Southeast Asia, and above all Africa.
The Congo is a hotbed for all the diseases above as well as Ebola. You get whole villages wiped out. We new novel ones like HIV- and they spread decimating the people and infecting millions.
Does Western civilization care? Not that much. Except for some missionaires and humanitarian groups (some of which have become corrupt and more interested in
dollars than people and had huge scandals)we obsessed with Avian which has killed less than 500 people and oblivious to Dengue Fever which has killed many millions. We look at Indonesia with a CFR of 83% for Avian- and wonder – if this recombined with H1N1 we would be in big trouble. Letting things like Dengue Fever run rampant with almost no press and no programs, is foolish.
Sometimes they come back- and our neglect of Middle and South America will like killer bees, eventually make its way up to the north and manage to learn to live in a colder world. Or with global warming, it won’t have to.
Here in the Philippines, a group of medical doctors presented before a government-sponsored event an integrative medicine modality that treats patients infected dengue fever with zero mortality rate.
Dengue is the oucome of man’s carelessness! Man is the sole manager of his environment. He only creates breeding grounds for these vectors. Man-made breeding grounds are the major sources of vector proliferation.If we are conscious of our surroundings (environment), we can prevent this disease and it’s reemergence. Let us keep our surroundings mosquito-free. Self help is the first step to help ourselves as well as our society.