The global incidence of dengue is rising and is further expected to rise because of climate change. Despite this high global burden of dengue, there is still no specific treatment and careful monitoring of patients to identify those who develop complications, and meticulous fluid management is the only available management.
Due to this increasing burden, the WHO named dengue one of the top ten threats to global health in 2019. There is also appreciation among the experts that the landscape is changing.
We, therefore, planned a webinar titled “Changing landscape for dengue and facing the challenges” on the 29th of November that was aimed to discuss the changing landscape in dengue globally, highlighting the increased burden of cases in children and pregnant women, risk factors for severe disease and how we can face these challenges.
The following speakers from India and Sri Lanka delivered the talk as follows:
1. Dr. Rakesh Lodha, AIMS, New Delhi
2. Dr. Ananda Wijewickrama, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Dr. Rakesh Lodha shared his experience from a tertiary care pediatric hospital in Delhi: clinical profiles and challenges in management. Need for research to identify anti-dengue drugs & therapies to manage dengue. Children, including infants, are at risk of severe disease coz of similar symptoms to other tropical infections.
Dr. Ananda Wijewickrama presented on complications and clinical dilemmas of Dengue in pregnancy and said that pregnant women are at higher risk of developing severe dengue than non-pregnant women, so early medical care is the key to saving the fetus from any complications.
Neelika Malavige, Head of Dengue Global Programme and Scientific Affairs at DNDi, moderated the webinar.
The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) is an international non-profit developing safe, effective, and affordable treatments for the most neglected patients. [ Ссылка ]
