A total of 21 people have been admitted to different hospitals in Dar es Salaam following an outbreak in dengue fever, it has been learnt.
The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare Spokesperson, Mr Nsachris Mwamwaja said in the city on Friday that 18 people were found with the disease in Kinondoni municipality, two in Temeke and one in Ilala districts.
“At this juncture, none of the patients has lost life and we are strengthening our sentinel surveillance sites around the country to ensure early detection,” he explained.
Dengue fever is a painful, debilitating mosquito-borne disease caused by any one of four closely related dengue viruses. These viruses are related to the viruses that cause West Nile infection and yellow fever.
It is transmitted by the bite of an Aedes mosquito infected with a dengue virus. The mosquito becomes infected when it bites a person with dengue virus in their blood. It can’t be spread directly from one person to another.
Mr Mwamwaja said that the patients were confirmed with the disease after samples were tested at the National Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) laboratory and found to possess the disease at the end of last month.
He said that the government through the ministry would continue strengthening the disease surveillance unit that follows up on diseases on a daily basis and ensure that staff are trained to see the signs early.
“While other efforts of containing this outbreak continues, the government has every intention of conducting an assessment of the disease to know the magnitude of the problem, the type of mosquitoes that spread the disease, their preferred environment and how to contain them,” he said.
According to the Webmd.com website, symptoms which usually begin four to six days after infection and last for up to 10 days, may include sudden, high fever, severe headaches, pain behind the eyes, severe joint and muscle pain, nausea, vomiting, skin rash that appears three to four days after the
on-set of fever and mild bleeding in the nose, gums and easy bruising.
The website cited that there is no specific medicine to treat dengue infection. If you think you may have dengue fever, you should use pain relievers with acetaminophen and avoid medicines with aspirin, which could worsen bleeding.
You should also rest, drink plenty of fluids and see your doctor. If you start to feel worse in the first 24 hours after your fever goes down, you should get to hospital immediately to be checked for complications.
The first ever recorded dengue fever in Dar es Salaam was recorded in 2010 where 40 people were diagnosed with the disease and in July last year, a record 172 people were found with the disease.
The ministry reaffirmed that there were no confirmed deaths in either of the two past outbreaks.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) September 2013 statistics, the incidence of dengue has grown dramatically around the world in recent decades. Over 2.5 billion people – over 40 per cent of the world’s population – are now at risk from dengue.
WHO currently estimates there may be 50-100 million dengue infections worldwide every year. An estimated 500,000 people with severe dengue require hospitalisation each year, a large proportion of whom are children.
About 2.5 per cent of those affected die.
By MASEMBE TAMBWE, Tanzania Daily News
