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With the arrival of the monsoon season,Indian cities start experiencing outbreaks of rain- related diseases.Dengue fever is one of them,a viral fever that spreads through the bite of the female Aedes Egypti mosquito.There has already been one death due to the illness this month in Mumbai.Last year at least 3,500 cases were diagnosed in India and 49 people succumbed to the fever.Experts maintain that the outbreaks are related to rapid urbanization and lifestyle changes in addition to deficient water management and storage.Dr. Duane Gubler, epidemiologist at the University of Hawaii, says that dengue fever is closely associated with population growth and urbanization.The rising number of dengue cases in the past decade in the big cities of India like Mumbai and Delhi substantiate this statement.The past few years have witnessed a big boom in the construction industry in Mumbai and other cities.This has been an invitation for the migration of hundreds of workers from rural areas to the cities and they have brought with them new strains of diseases.The housing conditions of these migrant workers are very poor.Hundreds of them are concentrated in small living quarters without proper sanitation and hygiene.After rainfall,such areas are flooded with water and poor drainage leads to water accumulation.Vector control in the form of mass fumigation is inadequate.Such areas make excellent breeding grounds for mosquitoes.To read more go to:
http://www.upiasiaonline.com/society_culture/2007/07/20/health_watch_the_rising_menace_of_dengue_fever/
As in the days of Noah...
