India is now under attack of a lethal disease called Dengue – it is mosquito-borne infection. According to Indian Health Ministry dengue virus has killed at least 125 people in India. A total number of 7,100 cases and 125 deaths have been reported from India as a whole and dreadfully with 2,051 cases, New Delhi and neighboring states have been the worst hit by the viral infection transmitted to humans through bites of the female Aedes mosquitoes.
Dengue viruses are transmitted to humans through the bites of infective female Aedes mosquitoes. Mosquitoes generally acquire the virus while feeding on the blood of an infected person. After virus incubation for 8-10 days, an infected mosquito is capable, during probing and blood feeding, of transmitting the virus, to susceptible individuals for the rest of its life. Infected female mosquitoes may also transmit the virus to their offspring by transovarial (via the eggs) transmission, but the role of this in sustaining transmission of virus to humans has not yet been delineated.
Besides dengue, the ministry also said 1,665 people had been diagnosed with chikungunya, another viral disease transmitted through the Aedes aegypti mosquito.
The government of Kerala said last week that chikungunya had claimed 86 lives amid reports of tens of thousands of cases. But the Central government said the deaths were not directly attributable to chikungunya as the victims had been weakened by other underlying conditions such as heart problems. Chikungunya causes high fever and headache, but is rarely fatal, according to the WHO.