Dengue Epidemic Situation in Bangladesh

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Photo by Егор Камелев on Unsplash

Photo by Егор Камелев on Unsplash

Why is it important?

People with large body surface, pregnant women, infants and youngsters (age below 20) mostly attract mosquitoes due to their tendency to give off more carbon dioxide. Also, alcoholic blood and blood group “O” attracts mosquitoes. The first licensed dengue vaccine, Dengvaxia® (Sanofi), received regulatory approval in a number of countries but had some limitations. Costs of 2 other live-attenuated vaccine candidates, DENVax (Japan) and TV003/TV005 (US) are not within the range of average people. In Indonesia Dengvaxia® costs about US$207 for the recommended three doses. Some available mosquito repellent creams are hiking 10 times price than actual price, so how much Dengvaxia® will hike, if available, we can very well imagine. Permethrin-treated military clothing has shown to be effective in significantly reducing mosquito bites in the covered regions. Topical application of neem, lemongrass, peppermint and eucalyptus oil have equivalent efficacy of DEET (banned in Denmark, EU, US, UAE, Canada but available in Bangladesh) but relatively safe in use. Conventional topical cream diethyl benzamide (ODOMOS/TRIG) also shows significant dermal and neurotoxicity. Their use should be limited to feet and ankles. Burning neem leaves provided nearly 80% protection against mosquitoes for 2 hours. However, to get similar efficacy like eucalyptus oil, more than 20 times higher concentration of neem oil was required. Neem infused water, papaya leaf juice, Gulancha (Tinospora cordifolia) and Tit Begun (Solanum xanthocarpum) shown to increase both blood platelets and WBC count, two of which are the worst side effects of dengue fever.