Dengue is known in India since 1940s, but the disease is very limited in its spread. Dengue is becoming rampant in many states of southern India. As of now, no specific treatments (therapies) or vaccines are available against the disease. The people of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, where the dengue incidences are increasing, perceive this spurt as due to poor rainfall and power supply. We attempted to verify this perception.
As part of our environmental analysis of the Bharathapuzha river basin, southern India, we examined the trend of temperature in the basin for a period of 36 years (1969–2005). It shows an overall upward trend in annual and daily temperatures. The temperature during winter, and the southwest (SW)
and northeast (NE) monsoon also showed significant increase.
