Dengue still a major threat to public health in India, says WHO

On World Health Day, 7 April, WHO has been urging countries to prevent and control vector-borne diseases including dengue, chikungunya, kala-azar, lymphatic filariasis and malaria. WHO says that diseases like dengue and malaria fuel a vicious cycle of poverty and have a significant impact on socioeconomic status of various communities. These diseases are still killing thousands of people in the WHO South-East Asia Region.

Forty per cent of the global population at risk of malaria lives in the WHO South-East Asia Region – home to a quarter of the world’s population. Malaria is endemic in 10 of the 11 countries in the region: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste. Maldives is the only country in the region that has remained free of malaria since 1984. Sri Lanka made remarkable progress in controlling malaria by bringing cases down from 203,000 in 2000 to zero locally acquired malaria cases since November 2012. 

The WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia Dr. Poonam Khetrapal Singh said, ‘These are deadly but preventable diseases. The solution lies in a united and sustained effort from all of us. Ministries of health alone cannot control these diseases. Their control and prevention needs committed engagement from all sectors, strong political will and active community participation.’ 

Vector-borne diseases account for 17% of the estimated global burden of all infectious diseases. Dengue is now the world’s fastest growing vector-borne disease, with a 30-fold increase in disease incidence over the past 50 years. 

Lymphatic filariasis, another mosquito-borne disease, is linked to poverty and creates disfiguring and social stigma. The South East Region still has 60 million infected people while 875 million people are at risk of infection.