Virtual human launched to warn people of dangers of dengue fever

[webfact]

 

Many Thai netizens had been wondering who an enigmatic girl, named Ingma, is and her relevance, after the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) and the Department of Disease Control (DDC) jointly released her image city hall’s webpage with the statement: “Want to know why millions of people gave rise to this girl?  Find out the answer on June 15th.”

 

Then came the second post, on the same webpage, asking why many people of different occupations are connected with this girl, including sportsmen, government officials, office workers, entrepreneurs, vendors and traders and so on. Keep abreast of her story on June 15th.

 

The true story of the enigmatic girl was revealed in a 42-second video clip released today (Wednesday). Ingma is a virtual human being, created by the BMA and the DDC as a campaign gimmick based on information from the victims of dengue fever, to warn Thai people of the health risks posed by dengue fever.

 

Full story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/virtual-human-launched-to-warn-people-of-dangers-of-dengue-fever/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2022-06-16

 

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[Baron Samedi]

Technology has become a means without end ????

This is a good example of a trend that has been going on for quiet some time now: dumb ideas to justify pointless innovations.

[Willy Wombat]

[mikebell]

Lots of virtual humans on Thai roads but which have no brain.

[internationalism]

with school closed most of the time within the last 2 years, there is no more dengue fever danger - schools being the main factor in spreading disease in community.

From the past some 70k infections per year and some 50 deaths, now down to 2000 in the first half of year and only 2 deaths (that is for the whole country, not just for bangkok, even if this campaign is bangkok focused). Due to incoming rainy season dengue statistics will rise, but still only some 5-10k infections and 5-10 deaths.

 

At the same time millions were infected with omicron and many thousands of deaths. Again, schools play a major role in spreading covid in the community.

 

If they really wanted to tackle dengue out brakes in the future (it probably won't be anytime soon, within the next years) they should look into vaccination program for school children in endemic areas. Similar to what Philippines did some 5 years ago to some 700k pupils. Even one dose of Dengvaxia (and not 3 recommended by manufacturer) might be good enough to prevent future out brakes. If direct contract with manufacturer and large governmental financial support, they would be able to get vaccinated all kids in bangkok aged 9-14 (probably on voluntary basis, to avoid potential back clash from parents) 

[simon43]

[quote]

with school closed most of the time within the last 2 years, there is no more dengue fever danger - schools being the main factor in spreading disease in community.

[/quote]

 

I'm confused by your comment.  Dengue is not an airborne/contact pathogen - it is spread by infected Aedes mosquitoes.  (I know, I've had dengue!).  Unless these mozzies enjoy hanging out on school premises more than elsewhere, I don't see how opening schools increases the risk of being bitten by a Dengue mozzie.

[placnx]

1 hour ago, internationalism said:

with school closed most of the time within the last 2 years, there is no more dengue fever danger - schools being the main factor in spreading disease in community.

From the past some 70k infections per year and some 50 deaths, now down to 2000 in the first half of year and only 2 deaths (that is for the whole country, not just for bangkok, even if this campaign is bangkok focused). Due to incoming rainy season dengue statistics will rise, but still only some 5-10k infections and 5-10 deaths.

 

At the same time millions were infected with omicron and many thousands of deaths. Again, schools play a major role in spreading covid in the community.

 

If they really wanted to tackle dengue out brakes in the future (it probably won't be anytime soon, within the next years) they should look into vaccination program for school children in endemic areas. Similar to what Philippines did some 5 years ago to some 700k pupils. Even one dose of Dengvaxia (and not 3 recommended by manufacturer) might be good enough to prevent future out brakes. If direct contract with manufacturer and large governmental financial support, they would be able to get vaccinated all kids in bangkok aged 9-14 (probably on voluntary basis, to avoid potential back clash from parents) 

The program in the Philippines was problematical. Dengvaxia was effective for those kids who had been previously infected, but for Dengue-naive ones who got jabbed, the vaccine made some cases of Dengue worse. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dengvaxia_controversy

[internationalism]

2 hours ago, simon43 said:

[quote]

with school closed most of the time within the last 2 years, there is no more dengue fever danger - schools being the main factor in spreading disease in community.

[/quote]

 

I'm confused by your comment.  Dengue is not an airborne/contact pathogen - it is spread by infected Aedes mosquitoes.  (I know, I've had dengue!).  Unless these mozzies enjoy hanging out on school premises more than elsewhere, I don't see how opening schools increases the risk of being bitten by a Dengue mozzie.

yes, schools are factors in dengue infection, mosquitoes are at schools, playgrounds. That's exactly because of closed schools dengue fall by 30x within the last 2 years.

I had dengue at least 2x, also had 3 dengvaxia since became available in thailand in 2017

[huangnon]

4 minutes ago, internationalism said:

yes, schools are factors in dengue infection, mosquitoes are at schools, playgrounds. That's exactly because of closed schools dengue fall by 30x within the last 2 years.

I had dengue at least 2x, also had 3 dengvaxia since became available in thailand in 2017

I would think Dengue would be prevalent where there is stagnant water for mosquitoes to breed . I don't see how schools factor into this.?

Dengue has just been under-reported due to the all-pervasive Covid pandemic since 2020.

[internationalism]

45 minutes ago, placnx said:

The program in the Philippines was problematical. Dengvaxia was effective for those kids who had been previously infected, but for Dengue-naive ones who got jabbed, the vaccine made some cases of Dengue worse. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dengvaxia_controversy

yes, it's well known, that this vaccination is beneficial for those, who already had one previously. And detrimental to those, who never had infection.

Scientists worked over 20 years on developing this vax, and it's as good as can be.

Some the other dengue vaxes are still worked on, but might take years/tens of years.

 

That's why it's recommended only for those, who live in endemic tropics of a minimum 9 years (that's how often statistically local population catches virus).

Way for avoiding jabbing those never infected yet would be checking for antibodies, but this test is as expensive as vaccination itself (they are worth 2000b).

That's why I did suggest, that thailand should allow parents consent, to avoid situation which happened in Philippines. But for many years to come, this disease is definitely not an issue here.

[internationalism]

6 minutes ago, huangnon said:

I would think Dengue would be prevalent where there is stagnant water for mosquitoes to breed . I don't see how schools factor into this.?

Dengue has just been under-reported due to the all-pervasive Covid pandemic since 2020.

stagnant water in thailand is everywhere, including school grounds.

Mosquitoes fly only some 100m from their breeding grounds, so infections are only on one soi.

Kids travel to school by many km and that's how virus is spread beyond control.

 

See in the original article, which is not quoted above:

"the average age of patients, who are mostly school children aged between 5 and 14 years old".

Mosquito which spreads dengue bites only day time. That's when kids are at school grounds. They don't bite at home, the usual early morning/dusk mosquito 

Edited June 16, 2022 by internationalism

[simon43]

3 minutes ago, internationalism said:

stagnant water in thailand is everywhere, including school grounds.

...

This definitely should not be the case.  Whenever I taught in schools in rural Thailand, Laos and Myanmar, all kids and teachers were instructed to regularly seek out any stagnant water containers (eg old buckets, tires etc) on the school grounds, and to empty and upturn them so that water couldn't collect in them.

Edited June 16, 2022 by simon43

[internationalism]

2 minutes ago, simon43 said:

This definitely should not be the case.  Whenever I taught in schools in rural Thailand, Laos and Myanmar, all kids and teachers were instructed to regularly seek out any stagnant water containers (eg old buckets, tires etc) on the school grounds, and to empty and upturn them so that water couldn't collect in them.

dengue is very much urban problem, with high population density. Not rural one.

Mosquito breeds in water tanks, bathrooms, roof gutters and under surface gutters, ditches.

There well might be an empty patch of land with vegetation and some rubbish, which nobody takes care - that would be a breeding ground

[oldies1]

 

[placnx]

On 6/16/2022 at 1:24 PM, internationalism said:

yes, it's well known, that this vaccination is beneficial for those, who already had one previously. And detrimental to those, who never had infection.

Scientists worked over 20 years on developing this vax, and it's as good as can be.

Some the other dengue vaxes are still worked on, but might take years/tens of years.

 

That's why it's recommended only for those, who live in endemic tropics of a minimum 9 years (that's how often statistically local population catches virus).

Way for avoiding jabbing those never infected yet would be checking for antibodies, but this test is as expensive as vaccination itself (they are worth 2000b).

That's why I did suggest, that thailand should allow parents consent, to avoid situation which happened in Philippines. But for many years to come, this disease is definitely not an issue here.

Let's hope that methods of analysis applied to Covid can be used to increase our understanding of the evasion of the immune system when someone is infected the second time with a different serotype, there being four. Some quadrivalent vaccines are under development. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dengue_vaccine