Dengue Bulletin

E
From the Editor’s desk
pidemic dengue fever/dengue haemorrhagic fever (DF/DHF) continues to be a
major public health problem globally. The wide geographic spread of both the
vectors and the viruses over the last 30 years have led to the development of
hyperendemicity in several urban areas in the tropics. Before the 1970s, only nine
countries had epidemic DHF. Today, the number has increased several fold. During
2001-2002, the World Health Organization estimated about 50 million infections with
over 500,000 cases of DHF with at least 12,000 deaths, mainly among children. A
reversal of these trends is the major challenge facing the health communities globally.
Endemic countries are striving hard to improve surveillance, particularly pro-active
surveillance which entails collection of blood samples to detect the virus genome and
to help predict DHF outbreaks. Cost-effective and sustainable interventions, rapid
diagnostics and improved case management to reduce both morbidity and mortality
are being pursued vigorously by these countries.
New “innovations” related to: (i) selective indoor residual spray of cryptic resting
sites of Aedes aegypti, instead of insecticidal fogging, for control of DHF epidemics; (ii)
inexpensive and rapid diagnostic test based on the nucleic acid sequence-based
amplication (NASBA) as an alternate to PCR which requires specialized training and
specific equipment, such as thermalcycler, and (iii) detection of dengue virus genome
among travellers to South-East Asian countries and its importance as a good predictive
for larger epidemics in “travellers contact” countries are the major highlights of this
volume.
It is heartening to note that the Dengue Bulletin, which initially focused on
WHO’s South-East Asia and Western Pacific Regions, has now reached new heights
and has gone global. Volume 26, includes contributions from four WHO Regions, viz.
South-East Asia, Western Pacific, American and Eastern Mediterranean.
The popularity of the Bulletin can be gauged by the fact that we have closed
contributions for Volume 27 which is due for publication by the end of 2003. We are
now inviting contributions for Volume 28. The deadline for the receipt of contributions
is 31 January 2004. Contributors are requested to follow the instructions carefully while
preparing the manuscript. Contributions accompanied by computer diskettes using MS
Word for Windows should be sent to the Editor, Dengue Bulletin, WHO/SEARO,
Mahatma Gandhi Road, I. P. Estate, Ring Road, New Delhi-110 002, India, or by email
as a file attachment to the Editor at dengue@whosea.org.
Readers desirous of obtaining copies of the Dengue Bulletin may contact the
respective WHO Regional Offices in New Delhi or Manila or the WHO Country
Representative in their country of residence.
Dr Chusak Prasittisuk
Regional Adviser
Vector-Borne Disease Control
World Health Organization
Regional Office for South-East Asia
New Delhi