2023-07-21 11:52:03
The World Health Organization (WHO) is concerned regarding the spread of the dengue virus, including in Europe. It is transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes, which live in tropical and subtropical climates. But they are spreading worldwide. The number of annual cases has increased eightfold since 2000, to an estimated 4.2 million last year, said Raman Velayudhan, head of the WHO’s neglected tropical diseases department, on Friday in Geneva.
“Now half of the world’s population is at risk of dengue,” he said. In the WHO European region, there have already been local infections in around two dozen countries, including Spain and France. According to the European health authority ECDC, no local infections have been reported this year. Heatwaves with particularly high temperatures are more likely to dry out mosquito breeding grounds and reduce the risk of being bitten, Velayudhan said. But he called on all countries to be vigilant when rain sets in once more. The mosquitoes breed in standing water.
Overall, the WHO assumes up to 400 million infections worldwide. It is difficult to estimate because 80 percent of those affected have hardly any or only mild symptoms when they first become infected and do not go to the doctor at all. You are then immune to one of the four dengue viruses. In the case of a second infection with one of the other three viruses, the disease might be more severe and life-threatening, said Velayudhan. Dengue fever was formerly called breakbone fever because it can cause severe body aches.
By July this year, North, Central and South America had reported as many infections and deaths as all of last year, Velayudhan said. In 2022 there were 2.8 million infections and 1,280 deaths. According to the website of the Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES), 30 to 120 dengue virus infections are diagnosed every year in Austria, so far without exception in travelers returning from endemic areas.
There are no medications for dengue except those that reduce fever. There is a vaccine on the market, but it only offers protection following an initial infection, and it’s more or less effective depending on what other virus you contract, Velayudhan said. The best thing to do is protect yourself with mosquito spray and avoid standing water around the house because mosquitoes breed in it. They bite during the day, so mosquito nets for sleeping are not effective once morest these mosquitoes.
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