Review Article Open Access

Break Bone Disease: A Brief Review

Abstract

Classical Dengue or ―break-bone fever‖ has been known in India for a very long time. It is an acute viral infection, by at least 4 serotypes (DEN1, 2, 3 and 4) of dengue virus. Of all the arthropod-borne viral diseases, dengue fever is the most common. Dengue fever is one of the most important emerging diseases of the tropical and subtropical regions, affecting urban and periurban areas. Dengue fever can occur epidemically or endemically. Epidemics may be explosive and often start during the rainy season when the breeding of the vector mosquitoes (e.g., Aedes aegypti) is generally abundant. The geographical distribution of the disease has greatly expanded and the number of cases has increased dramatically in the past 30years. A pandemic in 1998, in which 1.2 million cases of dengue fever and dengue haemorrhagic fever were reported from 56countries, was unprecedented. Preliminary data for 2001 indicates a situation of comparable magnitude. However, only a small proportion of cases were reported to WHO; it is estimated that each year 50 million infections occur, with 5,00,000 cases of dengue haemorrhagic fever and at least 1200 deaths, manly among children, although fatalities could be twice as high. The increase of dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever is due to uncontrolled population growth and urbanization without appropriate water management. The global spread of dengue via travel and trade has made every country to be aware about this threat. This article details the dengue fever with its fatal form in order to reduce the morbidity by the help of various prevention programmes.

Girish L Dandagi

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