JEDDAH, 23 January 2008 — Health officials in Jeddah registered 16 confirmed cases of dengue fever this month. A total of 342 cases of the illness were detected last year, according to a source at the Health Affairs Administration in Jeddah on Monday, Al-Eqtisadiah daily reported yesterday.
The spread of dengue has been linked to standing water, which is more prevalent in the winter months. The locations are also a haven for several migratory birds that could be affected by the avian flu. Residencies that have standing water in cisterns are also at risk of spreading dengue.
Dr. Nabeel Abu Khutwah, a specialist on environmental science at the King Abdul Aziz University and a consultant at the Jeddah Mayor’s Office, said that all the detected cases of dengue fever were treated and healed.
“While the laboratory under the Jeddah Mayor’s Office detected 21 varieties of mosquitoes, it also found that the second most common variety in the area was the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes which carry the Dengue virus,” Abu Khutwah said.
The most common variety is called culex, which is not known to spread any disease in the region.
The scientist observed a sharp reduction in the disease last year compared to 2006 when the number of registered cases was 1,314. He did not attribute any death to the disease in 2007. However he noted that an average of 8.2 cases were reported over the last five weeks of 2007 while the weekly average in the five weeks previous to it was 3.4.
Dengue fever is believed to be the most dangerous mosquito-borne disease after malaria. There are around 40 million cases of dengue fever and several hundred thousand cases of Dengue hemorrhagic fever each year. More than 16,000 people died because of the disease worldwide in 2007.
