Today is the International Dengue Day and for this reason we present five historical facts about this disease that is caused by a virus transmitted by mosquitoes.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared to August 26 International Dengue Daywith the aim of raising awareness among the population about this disease and the measures to prevent it.
1) What is the origin of dengue?
Dengue was originally a zootic disease.transmitted to primates by mosquitoes of the genus Aedes in the rainforests of Africa and Asia, says the doctor Daniel Pizarro in a 2009 article.
When humans invaded the jungle and they contacted the Aedes mosquitoes infected occurred the first outbreaks in small townsand later the disease spread to the big cities, he recalls.
2) The first historical record of dengue in the world
The first historical record of dengue It dates back to about 1,759 years ago in China, in the Far East.
Historically, it has not been determined when the dengue virus first appeared in human populations, mainly because the disease can be asymptomatic and, therefore, undiagnosed, says the scientist. Celia Martínez de Cuéllar in “Dengue an unfinished story.”
In turn, Duane J. Gublerin an article from 1998, specifies that the oldest record of denguefound to date, is in the Chinese Encyclopedia of Disease Symptoms and Remedies, first published during the Chin dynasty (who founded China and ruled from 265 to 420 dC) and formally edited in 610 d.C. (Tang dynasty) and again in 992 d.C. (Northern Sung dynasty).
The Chinese called the disease water poison and was thought to be related in some way to flying insects associated with waterremember Gublerwho has field work in Asia, the Pacific, tropical America and Africa.
3) The first dengue epidemic
Globally, the first reports of major epidemics a disease believed to have possibly been dengue They occurred on three continents (Asia, Africa and North America) in 1779 y 1780reports Gubler, researcher of dengue and other diseases transmitted by animals. Aedes flies.
In America, the first dengue epidemic reported occurred in 1780 en Filadelfiain the northern United States, and was Benjamin Rush who first described it and called it bone-breaking feverCuriously, in an area with a cold climate, it is abundant.
Regarding what is now called severe dengue, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) reports that a disease similar to hemorrhagic dengue was described for the first time in northern Australiawhere 1897 at the end of the last century.
In the next century, In 1954, the dengue hemorrhagic fever epidemic appeared in the Philippines.which spread rapidly to countries in Asia and the Pacific, and in the Americas, The first dengue hemorrhagic fever epidemic occurred in Cuba in 1981.details.
4) Who discovered the Aedes aegyti mosquito
August 14, 1881 went down in the history of medicine as the day that Cuban doctor Carlos Juan Finlay presented his “extraordinary” treatise “The mosquito hypothetically considered as an agent of transmission of yellow fever” before his colleagues in Havana, but he did not receive the credit he deserved, he says Jonathan Leonard in a PAHO Bulletin of 1990.
At 47 years of age, Finlay described in great detail the physiology and habits of the mosquito today known as Aedes aegypti and that this was the cause of yellow fever, based on the results of their own studies, says the review published by PAHO.
Officially, the discoverer is Thomas Lane Barcroft (1860-1933), doctor graduated from the University of Edinburgh what in 1906 demonstrated that the transmitter of dengue is the Aedes aegypti mosquito, reports in turn Federico Pergoladirector of Institute of History of Medicine from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires.
5) Who discovered the dengue virus, DENV?
A year later, doctors Percy Moreau Ashburn y Charles F. Craig They discovered that the cause of dengue is a virus, adds Pérgola.
Regarding this discovery, Gubler narrates that little was known about the etiology and transmission of dengue until the early 20th century, when the US Army unexpectedly stationed troops in tropical countries as a result of the Spanish-American War.
“After the success of the Yellow Fever Commission in Cuba, the Surgeon General of the US Army ordered that similar studies be conducted on dengue.
“One of the first was the study carried out by Ashburn and Craig, published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases in 1907,” he says.
Likewise, he narrates that Captain PM Ashburn and Lieutenant Charles F. Craig were young officers of the US Army Medical Corps sent to Filipinas to study dengue fever and, by chance, there was an epidemic at Fort William McKinley in the summer of 1906; Of the more than 800 reported cases, 128 were able to be studied.
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2024-10-06 21:00:21
