An outbreak of dengue fever in rural areas of northern India

During the past few decades, epidemics of dengue fever are causing concern in several South-East Asian countries including India. The rural areas of Hissar district of Haryana state, situated about 170 km North-West of Delhi, experienced an outbreak of febrile illness during July-August 1996. A tota...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of communicable diseases Vol. 33; no. 4; p. 274
Main Authors Kumar, A, Sharma, S K, Padbidri, V S, Thakare, J P, Jain, D C, Datta, K K
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published India 01.12.2001
Subjects
Adolescent
Adult
Aedes - physiology
Age Distribution
Animals
Child
Child, Preschool
Dengue - complications
Dengue - epidemiology
Dengue Virus - classification
Dengue Virus - isolation & purification
Disease Outbreaks
Female
Fever - complications
Fever - epidemiology
Humans
India - epidemiology
Infant
Male
Rural Health
Rural Population
Sex Factors
India
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Summary:During the past few decades, epidemics of dengue fever are causing concern in several South-East Asian countries including India. The rural areas of Hissar district of Haryana state, situated about 170 km North-West of Delhi, experienced an outbreak of febrile illness during July-August 1996. A total of 13 villages in eight affected primary health centres reported fever cases. The clinical, epidemiological and entomological findings indicated that the present episode was due to dengue fever. The aetiological agent of the current outbreak, the DEN-2 virus, was isolated from 12 acute-phase sera specimens. Though, in the recent past outbreaks have been reported from the rural areas of southern and western India, the present episode is the first outbreak being reported from the rural areas of northern India. The increasing frequency of dengue fever outbreaks in rural areas of various Indian states reflects the changing life style of the rural population as a result of urbanization process and calls for a suitable prevention and control policy based on strengthened surveillance, appropriate health education to the community coupled with proper training of health personnel.
ISSN:0019-5138