Pitter patter rain drops pour down and simultaneously opens a Pandora ’s Box full of diseases. Typhoid, cholera, jaundice, dengue, malaria and so on is an endless list of diseases that the monsoon brings in tow. It is not medically impossible to get immunized against all these diseases, but fortunately humans have been successful in devising measures to prevent these. Dengue and malaria are important monsoon maladies that can be prevented if appropriate steps are taken.
Dengue and malaria are diseases characterized by high fever, shivering, and chills with immense fatigue. Dengue typically presents with severe body ache, pain behind the eyes and bleeding. Malaria distinctively manifests with fever with shivering chills and headache. Both these fevers need urgent medical attention without which they can lead to fatal complications.
Dengue and malaria are both spread by mosquitoes. A single bite of an infected mosquito is enough to transmit these deadly fevers to you or your loved one. The dengue virus and the malaria parasite are carried from one infected person to another by the Aedes mosquito and the Anopheles mosquito respectively. There are a vast number of these mosquitoes out there all set to make a sumptuous meal of your blood and while they are doing so, they are sure to transmit the dengue virus or malarial parasite into your body.
Here are 5 brilliant tricks to avert dengue and malaria this monsoon
Clothing
The next important step is to wear the right clothing. In areas where there are a large number of mosquitoes, it is ideal to prevent bites by wearing long sleeved shirts and full length long pants.
Time of the day
As far as possible, one should avoid going out in the open where there are high densities of mosquitoes. Staying indoors, especially, in air conditioned rooms can keep mosquitoes out. Studies have shown that the dengue mosquito is a daytime biter and the malaria mosquito is a night biter. So, if you cannot avoid going out in the daytime, venturing out in the night should definitely be avoided. This way you can at least keep away from the night biters.
Prophylactic drugs
Dengue and malaria are highly prevalent in certain parts of the world like Asia, Africa, Middle East, Eastern Europe, Central America, South America and the Pacific islands. These areas will always have a few cases of these conditions. People from the rest of the world are likely to contract these diseases if they travel to these high risk areas. Before your travel, confirm whether the place of destination falls in an endemic dengue or malaria areas. If yes, a malaria prevention drug needs to be started before the travel. Drugs like proguanil, chloroquine, mefloquine and many more are available, the appropriate doses and schedule of which will be prescribed by a physician. However, there are no drugs or vaccines invented yet against dengue leaving the other measures of prevention for use. So, along with the visa one should always remember to carry these prophylactic life saving drugs too!
Insect repellent creams
There are creams and sprays available which contain the mosquito repellent DEET (N,
N diethyl metatoluamide) effective in preventing mosquito bites. Apart from using local applications, one must also make sure all the windows are covered with nets sprayed or soaked with permethrin or deltamethrin.
Breeding grounds
The last but not the least, there is nothing like nipping a problem right in the bud. A mosquito free world is not possible, but its possible to not create breeding grounds for them! If there are no mosquitoes, there will be no vectors to spread these diseases. We can do this only if we keep a watch over our surroundings. To prevent a rise in the number of mosquitoes one needs to know their breeding grounds. Dengue mosquitoes are found to grow in small amounts of water that collects in domestic containers, flower pots, old discarded car tires, toilet cistern, gully traps and roadside drains whereas, the malaria mosquitoes are found in clean, slow moving water bodies like fresh water marshes, pools, and streams. The mosquito problem is basically related to keeping the surroundings clean and hygienic. A wise move would be to make sure water does not collect and stagnate in various places.
A little extra care about your surroundings and environment, will keep it clean and healthy and ensure you remain healthy. A huge difference can be made in the number of persons falling sick due to diseases caused by mosquito bites. A will to go the extra mile will make sure we can travel all those extra miles all over the world without being worried about a deadly bite!