By Chung Ah-young
Dengue fever might be the most likely infectious disease to hit Korea, considering the impact of climate change and the increasing travels of Koreans to Southeast Asian countries, a study showed Friday.
According to work by Chu Chae-shin, a researcher at the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), the possibility of the outbreak of dengue fever is getting higher, following the outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) that hit the nation last year.
"In Korea, no indigenous dengue cases have been confirmed through 2015, and all reported cases were diagnosed among travelers returning from countries that went through an epidemic," he wrote in "Osong Public Health and Research Perspectives," the English language journal published by the KCDC.
However, he said that the nation is not safe from the disease as an increasing number of cases have been reported in recent years.
According to the KCDC, the number of Korean patients infected with the disease overseas has soared by 57 percent from 165 in 2014 to 259 last year. As of February this year, a total of 69 cases were reported in Korea, a 3.6-fold increase from 19 last year.
The KCDC forecasts that the number of cases is predicted to reach 300 this year at this pace.
Dengue fever is not contagious from person to person. But the dengue virus can be caused by the bite of an infected aedes mosquito. Mosquitoes become infected when they bite infected humans, and later transmit the virus to other people they bite.
According to the article, the possible outbreak of the disease in Korea can be compared to the characteristics of dengue fever cases in Japan.
The study showed that during 2006-2010, 367 and 589 imported dengue cases were reported in Korea and Japan, respectively.
In Korea, 82.6 percent of the dengue cases were from Southeast Asia, while in Japan they were 69.8 percent.
"The frequency of cases occurring in summer and autumn (about 70 percent of the total cases) was similar in both countries due to these being vacation seasons," he wrote.
"Accordingly, it leads to the conclusion that there is a risk of an autochthonous dengue outbreak in Korea in the near future, such as the outbreak in Japan in 2014."
Both Korea and Japan are located above the winter temperate zone where the aedes aegypti mosquito cannot survive. However, the aedes albopictus mosquito, a secondary vector, is abundant in both countries. Thus, both countries could be at risk of an outbreak of dengue fever given climate change and the existence of the vector, it said.
Dengue fever might be the most likely infectious disease to hit Korea, considering the impact of climate change and the increasing travels of Koreans to Southeast Asian countries, a study showed Friday.
According to work by Chu Chae-shin, a researcher at the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), the possibility of the outbreak of dengue fever is getting higher, following the outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) that hit the nation last year.
"In Korea, no indigenous dengue cases have been confirmed through 2015, and all reported cases were diagnosed among travelers returning from countries that went through an epidemic," he wrote in "Osong Public Health and Research Perspectives," the English language journal published by the KCDC.
However, he said that the nation is not safe from the disease as an increasing number of cases have been reported in recent years.
According to the KCDC, the number of Korean patients infected with the disease overseas has soared by 57 percent from 165 in 2014 to 259 last year. As of February this year, a total of 69 cases were reported in Korea, a 3.6-fold increase from 19 last year.
The KCDC forecasts that the number of cases is predicted to reach 300 this year at this pace.
Dengue fever is not contagious from person to person. But the dengue virus can be caused by the bite of an infected aedes mosquito. Mosquitoes become infected when they bite infected humans, and later transmit the virus to other people they bite.
According to the article, the possible outbreak of the disease in Korea can be compared to the characteristics of dengue fever cases in Japan.
The study showed that during 2006-2010, 367 and 589 imported dengue cases were reported in Korea and Japan, respectively.
In Korea, 82.6 percent of the dengue cases were from Southeast Asia, while in Japan they were 69.8 percent.
"The frequency of cases occurring in summer and autumn (about 70 percent of the total cases) was similar in both countries due to these being vacation seasons," he wrote.
"Accordingly, it leads to the conclusion that there is a risk of an autochthonous dengue outbreak in Korea in the near future, such as the outbreak in Japan in 2014."
Both Korea and Japan are located above the winter temperate zone where the aedes aegypti mosquito cannot survive. However, the aedes albopictus mosquito, a secondary vector, is abundant in both countries. Thus, both countries could be at risk of an outbreak of dengue fever given climate change and the existence of the vector, it said.
