Table of Contents
Where does the word dengue originate from?
Etymology. The origins of the Spanish word dengue are not certain, but it is possibly derived from dinga in the Swahili phrase Ka-dinga pepo, which describes the disease as being caused by an evil spirit.
Who named dengue virus?
These two scientists were studying blood samples of patients taken during the 1943 dengue epidemic in Nagasaki, Japan. A year later, Albert B. Sabin and Walter Schlesinger independently isolated the dengue virus. Both pairs of scientists had isolated the virus now referred to as dengue virus 1 (DEN-1).
What is the Swahili term for dengue and what is it’s meaning?
The Swahili word “dinga” may have its origin in the Spanish word “dengue,” meaning “fastidious” or “careful,” which would describe the gait of a person suffering the bone pain of dengue fever.
How did dengue come about?
Dengue fever is transmitted to humans via the bite of an infective Aedes mosquito. A mosquito becomes infected after it takes a blood meal from a dengue-infected person. It becomes infective after an extrinsic incubation period of 8 to 12 days. The mosquito then remains infective for the rest of its lifespan.
What is the Swahili term for dengue?
History of Dengue The origins of the word dengue are not clear, but one theory is that it is derived from the Swahili phrase “Ka-dinga pepo”, meaning “cramp-like seizure caused by an evil spirit”.
When did dengue first appear?
Outbreaks of febrile illnesses compatible with dengue fever have been recorded throughout history, with the first epidemic described in 1635 in the West Indies. In 1779-1780, the first confirmed, reported outbreak of dengue fever occurred almost simultaneously in Asia, North America, and Africa.
When did dengue start in the Philippines?
In 1998, epidemics began to appear in March in Aurora province in southern Luzon and in June in llo-ilo province in the western Visayas (Table 2).
Is dengue a virus or bacteria?
Dengue virus disease (dengue fever, or ‘dengue’) is a viral disease spread by mosquitoes in many tropical and subtropical parts of the world including Africa, Asia, South America and occasionally, some parts of northern Queensland.
Is dengue a pandemic?
Abstract. Dengue is a rapidly emerging pandemic disease in many parts of the world, which is a major health problem in the tropics with possibilities of extension to other geographic areas.
Is dengue contagious human to human?
When a mosquito bites a person who has dengue fever, the mosquito becomes infected with the virus that causes the disease. It can then spread the virus to other people by biting them. Dengue fever is not contagious, so it can’t spread directly from person to person.
Why is dengue pronounced as Dengee?
Infectious diseases experts say the right pronunciation is ‘dengee’. The origins of the word, they say, aren’t clear, but references are made to Swahili and Spanish. One theory is that it was derived from a Swahili phrase, Ka-dinga-pepo, which means “cramping pain caused by an evil force”.