The National News Agency of Malaysia is reporting that the dengue fever epidemic this year has exceeded last year’s case count by more than 45,000. Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam said, “Accumulated number of dengue cases from January up to Aug 16 throughout the country was 62,860 cases, an increase of 45,585 cases compared with 17,275 cases recorded last year (2013).”
The dengue total is up approximately 10,000 cases from a month ago.
The country has reported an average of 3,000 cases in each of the past two weeks.
Dengue fever is an infectious disease carried by mosquitoes and caused by any of four related dengue viruses. This disease used to be called “break-bone fever” because it sometimes causes severe joint and muscle pain that feels like bones are breaking.
People get the dengue virus from the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito. It is not contagious from person to person. For more infectious disease news and information, visit and “like” the Infectious Disease News Facebook page
There are three types of dengue fever in order of less severe to most: the typical uncomplicated dengue fever, dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHS) and dengue shock syndrome (DSS). Looking for a job in health care? Check here to see what’s available
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates there may be 50–100 million dengue infections worldwide every year. However, new research from the University of Oxford and the Wellcome Trust, using cartographic approaches, estimate there to be 390 million dengue infections per year worldwide.
“Dengue fever” is just a lazy catch-all name to describe mosquito borne diseases. Dengue fever affects the brain while “Chikungunya” affects the bones and joints. This name is an African word. Malaysia’s press and health authorities have a bad habit of lumping the two disease together under “dengue fever”. I wouldn’t be surprised if the 62,000 figure quoted includes malaria as well.