Dengue Fever Cases Have Skyrocketed Around The World, And Cleaning Up Trash Can Significantly Reduce The Disease Risk
This past year, cases of dengue fever have skyrocketed all around the world. According to researchers from Stanford University, there is a simple but highly overlooked way to significantly reduce disease risk—cleaning up trash.
Dengue fever is a viral illness that is spread through mosquito bites. Cases can be asymptomatic, but many people have experienced painful body aches and high fever.
Infections the second time around are often more severe and can lead to hemorrhagic fever, shock, and even death at times.
The illness thrives in warmer, wetter weather driven by climate change and is spreading rapidly into new locations outside of its historical tropical range. Between 2023 and 2024, dengue cases doubled globally and expanded into the United States.
The research team wanted to learn more about the transmission of dengue and two other diseases spread by the same mosquito, Zika and chikungunya, in children up to the age of five in Fiji and Indonesia, which are two dengue hotspots.
Their study found that children living in households where garbage was disposed of and removed regularly had a much lower risk of getting dengue compared to children whose homes were surrounded by trash.
“Trash disposal can have a real impact on dengue risk,” said Joelle Rosser, the lead author of the study and an assistant professor of medicine at Stanford’s School of Medicine.
“This highlights an important area where we have an opportunity to intervene and improve the health of humans and their lived environment.”
The team believes that trash is a major risk factor for dengue worldwide, as various types of waste can accumulate in shallow standing water and create ideal breeding grounds for Aedes aegypti, the mosquito that transmits dengue.
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Other recent research led by Stanford has shown a similar connection between trash and mosquito-related disease risk in Kenya. Additionally, mosquitoes and the diseases they carry can adapt to hotter temperatures.
The researchers examined children from 24 places in Fiji and Indonesia. They tested children up to the age of five, which is a group that is particularly vulnerable to the virus. They also asked detailed questions about the children’s home environments.
The researchers were surprised by how prevalent dengue fever was among the study participants. Overall, 71 percent of children in Fiji and 51 percent of the children in Indonesia had been infected with dengue by the age of four, putting them at greater risk for a more severe second infection during their youth.
The team also noticed that settlements experiencing more frequent flooding had lower rates of dengue fever. This could be due to the floodwaters destroying mosquito breeding sites.
However, flooding in areas with poor trash removal could create more mosquito breeding sites and increase dengue fever cases.
The findings demonstrate that trash management and flood mitigation are measures that must be improved in order to control dengue and other diseases spread by the mosquitoes.
The study was published in BMC Infectious Diseases.
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