OUTBREAK OF DENGUE FEVER IN LAHORE: STUDY OF RISK FACTORS

Authors

  • Fatima Mukhtar
  • Mohammad Salim
  • Arsalan Farooq

Abstract

Background: Dengue fever is a rapidly emerging arthropod born viral disease threatening to becomean international public health problem. Approximately 500,000 people suffer from denguehaemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome with 20,000 deaths annually. Objective of this studywas to look into the risk factors associated with the development of dengue fever. Methods: This crosssectional descriptive study was conducted on patients admitted in various hospitals of Lahore withsuspected Dengue fever. Data was collected on a questionnaire from 109 conveniently selected patients.Results: Mean age of the patients was 34±16.5 years, and majority (80, 73.4%) were male.Seropositivity for dengue was found in 78 (71.5%). The study did not find significant statisticalassociation of seropositivity with demographic variables. However, source of water supply was foundassociated with dengue seropositivity (p=0.002). Conclusion: Source of water is a determinant ofcontracting dengue fever owing to it a breeding media for mosquitoes. All other phenomena associatedwith use of water and sanitation needs to be part of long term control of dengue that will also contributeto controlling other diseases with the same determinants.Keywords: Dengue fever, dengue haemorrhagic fever, dengue shock syndrome, water sources, epidemic

References

Dengue Fever World Health Organization Fact Sheet No.117.

Available from: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/

factsheets/fs117/en/.

Lloyd LS. Environmental health project: Best practices for dengue

prevention and control in the Americas. Strategic report

Washington DC: Organizacion Panamericano de la salud; 2003.

Jahan F. Dengue fever in Pakistan. Asia Pac Fam Med

;10:1. doi: 10.1186/1447-056X-10-1.

Khan E, Hasan R. Dengue Infection in Asia; A Regional

Concern. J Postgrad Med Inst 2011;26:1–6.

Khan H. Wake-up: dengue epidemic is at the door step. Gomal J

Med Sci 2011;9:143–4.

Erlanger TE, Keiser J, Utzinger J. Effect of dengue vector control

interventions on entomological parameters in developing

countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Med Vet

Entomol 2008;22:203–21.

World Health Organization. Dengue: Guidelines for diagnosis,

treatment, prevention and control. Geneva: WHO and Tropical

Disease Research; 2009.

Khormi HM, Kumar L. Modelling dengue fever risk based on

socioeconomic parameters, nationality and age groups: GIS and

remote sensing based case study. Sci Total Environ

;409(22):4713–9.

Braga C, Luna CF, Martelli CM, De Souza WV, Cordeiro MT,

Alexender N, et al. Seroprevalence and risk factors for dengue

infection in socio-economically distinct areas of Recife, Brazil.

Acta Trop 2010;113:234–0.

Duncombe J, Lau C, Weinstein P, Aaskov J, Rourke M, Grant R,

et al. Seroprevalence of dengue in American Samoa, 2010

[letter]. Emerg Infect Dis 2013;19:324–6.

Montenegro D, Lacerda HR, Lira TM, Oliveira DS, Lima AA,

Guimarães MJ, et al. [Clinical and epidemiological aspects of the

dengue epidemic in Recife, PE, 2002]. [Article in Portuguese].

Rev Soc Bras Med Trop 2006,39:9–13.

Schmidt WP, Suzuki M, Thiem VD, White RG, Tsuzuki A, et al.

Population density, water supply, and the risk of dengue fever in

Vietnam: cohort study and spatial analysis. PLoS Med

;8(8):e1001082.

Phoung HL, De Vries PJ, Bhooshuyar C, Binh TQ, Nam NV,

Kager PA. Dengue risk factors and community participation in

Binh Thuan Province, Vietnam, a household survey. Southeast

Asian J Trop Med Public Health 2008;39:79–89.

Ashford DA, Savage HM, Hajjeh RA, Mcready J, Bartholomew

DM, Spiegel RA, et al. Outbreak of dengue fever in Palau,

western Pacific: risk factors for infection. Am J Trop Med Hyg

:69(2):135–40.

Figueiredo MA, Rodrigues LC, Barreto ML, Lima JW, Costa

MC, Morato V, et al. Allergies and diabetes as risk factors for

dengue hemorrhagic fever: results of a case control study. PLoS

Negl Trop Dis 2010;4(6):e699.

Pang J, Salim A, Lee VJ, Hibberd ML, Chia KS, Leo YS, et al.

Diabetes with hypertension as risk factors for adult dengue

hemorrhagic fever in a predominantly dengue serotype 2 epidemic:

a case control study. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2012;6(5):e1641.

Published

2012-06-01

Most read articles by the same author(s)

1 2 > >>