There are different types of diseases having a direct or indirect impact on the health of the people and creating issues to maintain a healthy life. The monsoon season has created the perfect storm and the numbers of dengue cases are increasing in India. This is a viral disease transmitted by infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in tropical and subtropical regions.1 The major states in India that are facing high numbers of the case involve Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar. The level of severity is also high in the cases of dengue and leading to death. In the pandemic scenario of Covid-19, the improvement in the cases of dengue is creating threats for the populations and the current forecast suggests that the number of dengue cases will increase rapidly.
The major symptoms and signs of dengue involve mild fever, joint and muscles pain, body rash, frequent vomiting and intense headache. These issues generally disappear with treatment in a week and are rarely fatal.2 However, lack of treatment and education as well as precautions affects the recovery of the patients and leads to mortality. The major precautionary measures that are considered for minimizing the infection of dengue involve not allowing water to accumulate in plant pots, buckets or at any open area. People need to stay away from the open drains or wear covered clothes when going outside. Moreover, people need to eat fresh home-cooked meals including green vegetables and harmful water. However, the government and medical agencies are creating awareness related to the precautions and providing the information related to maintaining the immunity to protect the people but lack of understanding and negligence to the information increasing the case of dengue in different parts of the country. 3
The country is still reeling under the second wave of Covid-19 and the rising case of dengue fever has triggered new health challenges for the medical department. According to analysis, people are not paying attention to the vector-borne disease and common illnesses in the pandemic time. Uttar Pradesh has seen many cases of high fever and is been referred to as mystery fever as the key issues were not diagnosed. The experts are saying that the deadly fever is triggered by dengue or could be due to scrub typhus. Therefore, awareness related to the signs and symptoms of dengue needed to be increased and people need to get the treatment as early as possible to avoid such critical illness. 4 The improvement in the number of cases is creating a burden on the medical system and it will be difficult for them to control both Covid-19 and dengue. Moreover, the lack of availability of medicines and low income of people is including the process of getting required treatment as the Covid-19 outbreak has affected the level of earnings and supply of the medicines. The early diagnose of dengue can help minimize the severity and infection in the community.
