There are outbreaks of dengue every year in India. They vary in the predominant serotype involved, clinical features and predominant laboratory findings. This study of the 2006 outbreak in Delhi highlights clinical features and laboratory parameters of dengue cases and compares the clinical features among the adult and paediatric age groups.

Dengue fever is a mosquito born arboviral disease caused by four serotypes of dengue virus (DEN-1 to DEN-4). Although the classical type of dengue fever has been endemic in India for many years, the more severe form of disease, dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF) and dengue shock syndrome (DSS), were first reported from Calcutta in 1963. Since then many outbreaks of DHF/DSS have been reported from various parts of the country. Delhi has witnessed two major outbreaks of dengue haemorrhagic fever in the last two decades. It has been noticed that clinical features

Although postconflict Afghanistan has some of the worst health indicators in theworld, the government is working hard to rebuild the health infrastructure, extend services to underserved areas and improve the quality of health services. An outbreak of cholera that struck Kabul and spread nationwide in 2005, prompted a collaborative response from the Afghan Ministry of Public Health, partner agencies, and the system established to
provide the Basic Package of Health Services, of which diarrhoeal disease control is an essential component.This

In October 2007, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Director General of the WHO joined together to declare that the eradication of malaria was the only acceptable longterm goal for a disease that takes so many lives. Since the collapse of the global eradication campaign in 1969, there has been unwillingness to discuss elimination or eradication at all and this new departure is a very positive step.