Poorva Chavan
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Written By: Poorva Chavan | Updated : February 19, 2016 9:48 AM IST
India has been fighting against dengue for a long time. The number of dengue-related deaths has only been rising every season. As the monsoon arrives and temperatures dip, the government starts its awareness drives but somehow the efforts fail and dengue cases rise exponentially.
Brazil is currently fighting a similar battle against the Zika virus. Over 34 countries in the Americas and the Caribbean are affected by the Zika virus and Brazil is the worst affected of all with over 4500 cases of microcephaly, a complication of the virus, reported since October 2015. WHO has already declared Zika outbreak as a public health emergency of international concern. (Read: 8 essential tips to prevent Zika)
Zika is spread by the bite of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, the same mosquito that spreads dengue. Dengue causes an epidemic-like situation every year, it is one of the leading causes of death in India. To tackle the spread of dengue, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has now recommended adopting Brazil's Zika virus awareness model.
How is Brazil tackling the Zika virus?
Educating people about the virus and creating awareness about its spread is an integral part of the Brazil model. Brazil has deployed over two million armed force personnel teamed with mosquito control teams and community health agents to spread awareness about the disease and educate people about how to prevent mosquito breeding zones in their neighbourhood. With the help of this force, Brazil managed to screen over 2.86 million homes for the virus. (Read: Zika fever: 6 symptoms of zika viral disease everyone should know!)
The IMA pointed out that dengue mostly affects countries with poor sanitation. Last year, the highest number of dengue cases reported in Delhi was 97,740 and over 200 people lost their lives to the disease. India too, with the help of its armed forces, India too can spread awareness about the causes, consequences and prevention of dengue.
According to reports, IMA Secretary General K K Aggarwal informed that transmission of dengue is a cycle, a mosquito bites an infected person, gets infected and then infects other healthy people and the cycle continues. He also said that diseases like dengue spread through travelling and major cities like Delhi are tourist hubs all round the year. He further raised concern over the fact that India has not been able to eliminate the cause of dengue since 2010. He expressed that at least on Indian state should begin with adopting Brazil's policy and declare war against the Aedes mosquito. To know more about how the zika virus spreads
Have some questions on Zika? Watch this video to get all your questions answered.
Will it help India?
It is important to note that Brazil has only recently implemented the awareness model and it is too soon to comment on whetehr it's efficient or not. However, the Brazillian govenrment is leaving no stone unturned in preventing the spread of the disease. Well, India too drives awareness campaigns every year, but they are not even half as intense as Brazil's model. India doesn't employ so many health care workers for this cause let alone deploying the armed forces for it. Screening of homes, d0es take place, maybe only in a few metro citis, but what about place slike smaller villages and towns which are more likley to have with poor sanitation? Yes, may be India does emplot a huge task force, and spread enough awareness among people, it can eliminate dengue in no time. (Read: Is India at risk of Zika? What are its symptoms? How to prevent it and more )
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