While the Influenza A (H1N1) virus, formerly known as swine flu, is the disease that is currently shaking the world in paranoia, even panic, there is an even far worse disease that is devastating some regions of the earth – dengue fever. Had dengue cases been more reported, it could have been labeled a pandemic long before swine flu came into the scene.
In Latin America and Australia, the outbreaks of dengue fever have been described as the worst in 50 years, with hundreds of thousands having been infected. Last year alone, more than one million cases of dengue fever were reported in Latin America and the Caribbean, making it one of the worst viral epidemics ever recorded.
Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne disease that occurs mostly in tropical regions. While malaria, another mosquito-borne illness, occurs mostly in rural areas, dengue fever-bearing mosquitoes live in congested urban areas. Dengue can lead to death if not immediately medicated. Another unique and alarming feature of this disease is that there are no anti-viral medicines for it.
What is common between dengue fever and swine flu is the fact that both are a result of environmental degradation. In the case of dengue fever, global warming and climate change that have been bringing forth warmer temperatures cause the rapid breeding and longer life of disease-bearing mosquitoes.
Via ecoworldly
