Dengue is a viral infection spread by the dengue virus. The dengue virus belongs to the Flavivirus genus and the Flaviviridae family of RNA viruses. Dengue fever is transmitted by arthropods namely mosquitoes and hence is called an arbovirus. Dengue has 5 strains of the virus that one can be infected by. The fifth type was announced in the year 2013.
Dengue is spread by the Aedes Genus of mosquitoes. So simply put, dengue is most likely to be found in regions where these mosquitoes can find a suitable environment to breed in. Mosquitoes require warm to hot temperatures in addition to stagnant fresh water for breeding. Mosquitoes can breed in as little as 1 cm of water on soil. So to find out where dengue fever is commonly found, one should identify the areas with suitable breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
While dengue fever is found in most parts of the world, except the extremely cold arctic and antarctic regions of the world. However, geographically speaking, dengue fever is most commonly found between the attitudes of 35 degree north and 35 degree south below an elevation level of 1000 meters. Simply because dengue is spread by the Aedes Aegypti genus of mosquitoes which prevail these regions. Compared to rest of the world, dengue is concentrated in the tropical and sub tropical regions of the world.
Dengue is an arbovirus spread by mosquitoes. So any place on the planet that provides a good environment for breeding of the Aedes Aegypti will prove to be hot grounds for dengue fever. The virus is rampant in Africa, central and south America, the Caribbean, Eastern Mediterranean, South and South East Asia, and Oceania. Africa and South East Asia in particular have regular outbreaks of Dengue. The local variation depend on factors like rainfall, temperature and unplanned urbanisation. It is usually the semi urban and urban areas where the dengue fever is more rampant and after to spread form one person to another.
As of today there is no globally approved vaccination available for dengue fever. There are some countries that are using novel vaccinations but that is about it. Apart from that the only way to deal with dengue fever is to avoid mosquito bites and if infected to let the infection pass. Once infected with dengue, the body becomes immune to the strain for a life time and to the other strains for a short duration of time.
The only way to end the global dengue fever crisis is to take adequate measures to stay dafe from mosquito bites while trying to reduce the breeding of mosquitoes. Planned urbanisation can play a vital role in the spreading of dengue fever. Various mosquito protection options are available like sprays, mats, coils, creams, lotions, gels, candles, roll ons, vaporisers, etc. Adequate and appropriate use of mosquito protection can go a long way to reduce the number of dengue fever instances across the world.
