national

No. of dengue fever cases stands at 104 in 15 prefectures

14 Comments

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said Thursday that the number of people who have contracted dengue fever stands at 104 in 15 prefectures. The ministry said eight new cases were confirmed on Thursday, TBS reported.

Health officials said the latest cases were most likely caused by mosquitoes in Tokyo's Yoyogi park where the virus is believed to have originated last month. However, of the total number of infected cases, at least six people said they had not been to Yoyogi Park recently, TBS reported.

The health and environment ministries, as well as the Tokyo metropolitan government are working together to eradicate mosquitoes from several parks in Tokyo. Traps have also been set up to catch mosquitoes in order to track the spread of the virus, TBS reported.

© Japan Today

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

14 Comments
Login to comment

This is scary! I thought Japan imosquitoes are harmless. I was bitten by dengue-carrying mosquitoes countless of times and never got infected. I can tell the mosquito is dengue-carrier by the white stripes on its body. I think that was the tiger mosquito.

-12 ( +0 / -12 )

Nasty mosquitoes. I hope the cooler weather will put an end to all this.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

WHAT PREFECTURES!?

4 ( +4 / -0 )

If you never got infected, then those mosquitoes weren't carrying dengue.

Or his/her immune system fought the infection.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aedes_albopictus

The mosquitoes I often encounter looks the same as the dengue-carrying mosquitoes. They are big, has white stripes and they itch. They're everywhere in my prefecture.

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

So did these other people stay within their own prefectures or did they go to Tokyo? I'm wondering why they're not giving us any more information?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

titanium.... methinks you are immune to dengue ;)

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

titaniumdioxideSep. 12, 2014 - 10:06AM JST The mosquitoes I often encounter looks the same as the dengue-carrying mosquitoes. They are big, has white stripes and they itch. They're everywhere in my prefecture.

Yes, those are one of the types of mosquitoes that are capable of carrying dengue fever.

No, that does not mean that they are all carrying dengue fever.

Your assumption that all of those mosquitoes carry dengue fever is like assuming that all humans are HIV positive. Humans are capable of carrying HIV, but not all humans do.

Does that clear up the misunderstanding?

6 ( +6 / -0 )

it's starting to get cold, less mosquitoes from now on yes! I always go to park and i hate it when mosquitoes disturb me while reading.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Frungy,

Nice analogy but it's erroneous.Why isolate to just HIV ? Don't forget all humans carry common floras. All humans have colds virus in their body living dormant. All have lactobacilli or staphylococci etc. Your claim doesn't clarify though why Chiba, the prefecture I'm in, which is also affected according to the report, has the mosquitoes I described.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Titanium: Tiger mosquitos have been in Japan for ages and only have recently have started carrying and spreading the disease. It is possible for scientists to determine which ones are carrying certain diseases and which ones aren't.

It is possible that mosquitos which carry the dangue fever have came from another country via international transport or even the winds. With that in mind, it is possible that the mosquitos that are carrying the disease have spread to other parts of Japan by the same manner.

I am very thankful for those 2 facts because the tiger mosquitos love me! 3 bites in the 10 seconds it took me to walk from my car to my house yesterday...

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I don't think they came with the "wind", these mosquitoes generally don't fly very far, 2-300m and remain in one area throughout their lives. Their eggs can survive for months in the cold even out of water, but I don't think eggs laid by infected mosquitoes will themselves be infected.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

I noticed they removed the word "epidemic" which was used in the first article. While this is potencialy serious, it's not an epidemic, though it's strange that they don't mention where the other 14 prefectures are? The best defence agaist this, is to keep your emmune systems healthy as possible and take better care of these natural areas. Spraying tons of poisons is a double edged sword, yes it kills mosquitoes but it also kills a diversity of other insects, amphibians, small fish, birds and bats. Those are just some of natures, natural defenses to stop or slow down these imbalances from becoming epidemic.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites