Earlier times country like Bangladesh was busy with bacterial diseases like TB, Cholera, Typhoid etc, parasitic diseases like Malaria and Kala azar or fungal diseases like Candida. But for recent years those diseases are in declining fashion and viral diseases like different flues, Dengue, Chikungunia, HEV, HBV etc are taking upper hand in the community. So is it reversing? Should we need to give more attention over virus also
We must be aware of all kinds of infectious diseases, but particularly at emerging or new infections, such as Nipah virus which occurred in Bangladesh some years ago. But of course, bacterial and parasitic diseases must not be neglected!
It could also be that the seasonal nature of the viral infectious, their sudden and dramatic onset with a surge of cases in a short time and the corresponding media reporting of the condition sensationalises the disease burden, whereas disease caused by protozoa tend to be endemic in nature and hence mundane in terms of reporting. There also has been better identification and stratification of viruses more recently compared to the larger pathogens due to the advancements in microscopy so therefore a corresponding increase in the rate of diagnosis of their disease, which earlier may have been missed.
@ Ashwath Ramji: You say: "There also has been better identification and stratification of viruses more recently compared to the larger pathogens due to the advancements in microscopy ...." It is not the advancement in microscopy, but the advancement in molecular (PCR-based) diagnoses.
More than 30000 are affected by Dengue and more than 40 died so far in Bangladesh!
Dengue fever is in fact one of the diseases increasing in prevalence in many countries. It is therefore a high public health priority to educate people to minimize the breeding possibilities of Aedes mosquitoes. Also in temperate regions, imported Dengue cases almost exceed imported malaria cases. There are more threats to come, like further Zika fever outbreaks, but also local epidemics, e.g. in Brazil increasing cases of Mayaro virus infection. Anyone interested in outbreaks or case reports of infectious diseases should register with ProMed mail to receive relevant information.
Christian G Meyer - Sir, what I meant by "identification and stratification" was the "discovery " and knowledge of the existence of these viruses. But as far as diagnosis is concerned, I agree with your remark.
Chikungunya fever was originally a purely Asian disease, but meanwhile it has reached many other areas. Some years ago there was a huge outbreak in the caribbean and even in 2007 there was an outbreak of Chikungunya in northern Italy.
Yes Sir! But why there is turning out of excessive trends of viral disease outbreak! Are there any genetic changes like antigenic shift and antigenic drift happening in the viral genome or it is the "GODS intent"!!
Without going too much into detail: Much is man made (deforestation, all kinds of interventions in nature, climate change, international traffic, transport of goods, breeding places for vectors etc.), thus contributing to the spread, distribution and introduction of viruses into areas where previously they were not endemic. A good example is the introduction of West Nile virus into the US or the introduction of the MERS coronavirus into South Korea. Also resilience of humans contribute to the spread of viruses (e.g. resilience of rural people to treatment and prevention strategies with regard to Ebola in the DR Congo). Other factors relate to the evolutionary biology of viruses: Of course there is a lot of genetic shifts and drifts (look at the influenza viruses, which require every year a new design of the vaccine). Of course viruses tend to develop mechanisms to efficiently evade the immune responses of their hosts. God´s intent: I wouldn´t agree. He/she has better things to do than spread viruses over the earth.
Yaa! Killing or destroying lots of viruses are very much difficult in vivo! A developing countries like Bangladesh has very limited facilities for confirming viral diseases. Indirect tests also have some fallacies! Current news is we have >50000 dengue infections and >40 died so far. So we are afraid. Scientists should think of that and work for development of easy elimination of viruses from the body. Otherwise civilization will be in much threat of elimination.
ICDDR'B is an excellent center in Bangladesh but it is underused here for our community! They are busy with research works. They are busy with diarrrhoeal diseases and TB. Collaborative work with Bangladesh physicians and ICDDR'B physicians are not seen commonly.
So, Covid 19 proves that our suspicion and discussion was interesting and it was predicted early.
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