Thursday, 19 March 2026

The interaction of air pollution and Dengue fever mortality

   

A recent international paper (Khan et al, 2026) looked at Dengue fever mortality, and air pollution in the same countries at the same time. Twenty Dengue - endemic countries around the world were compared. Dengue fever case mortality rates (CFR) were derived from national data or the World Health Organization's (WHO) global dengue surveillance platform - importantly these are not cases of Dengue, but deaths from Dengue. Particulate air pollution (PM2.5) was derived from satellite data.

 

All countries examined showed a mean annual ambient PM2.5 exposure over the WHO air quality guideline of 5 μg/m3 (range: 7.4–77.5 μg/m3).

 

Strikingly, countries exceeding 35 μg/m3 PM2.5 such as Bangladesh, Burkina Faso and Indonesia recorded 3-5 times higher mortality than countries below 15 μg/m3 such as Brazil, Ecuador, and Costa Rica (p < 0.001).

 

At first glance it might appear to be a coincidence of economics - poorer countries are likely to have less stringent pollution regulations, less well funded health services and less effective vector control programmes. And higher GDP per capita was indeed protective. But it was maybe more complicated than that. For example, the huge dry season pollution in Bangladesh (PM2.5 125 μg/m3) was associated with nearly doubled Dengue mortality compared to the rainy season (50 μg/m3), despite there being fewer Dengue cases overall in the dry season. Whereas in Brazil there was minimal seasonal variability in both air quality and dengue fatality.

 

So what is going on?

 

Prolonged exposure to PM2.5 concentrations exceeding 35 μg/m3 has been linked to many cardiovascular, respiratory, and malignant diseases (WHO 2021). Fine particles can promote systemic inflammation, and exacerbate vascular permeability, processes central to Dengue pathogenesis. The authors speculate that in the context of Dengue fever, immunomodulatory effects may exaggerate symptoms such as cytokine production, leading to more severe symptoms such as Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever. In other words, air pollution multiplies the body's response to Dengue, and that is what kills you (Lin et al., 2018; Monoson et al., 2023).

 

As the authors admit, there are some limitations to this study. For example, only Bangladesh and Brazil had complete and reliable monthly datasets for both PM2.5 and Dengue available for the period 2020–2024. And specific Dengue serotypes may have varied across continents. But reducing air pollution has multiple health benefits, and one of those may be your survival of Dengue fever infection.

 

References

 

Khan, S., Haider, N., Yahiro, T., Akbar, S.M.F., Khan, F., Hasan, M.N., Al Mahtab, M., Hashimoto, T., Kimitsuki, K., Tachibana, T., Watanabe, K., Nishizono, A. 2026. Ambient PM2.5 exposure and increased dengue case fatality: a global multi-country analysis. Environ Pollut., 394:127731. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2026.127731.

 

Lin, C.L., Tsai, C.H., Sun, Y.L. et al. 2018. Instillation of PM2.5 induced acute lung injury in ACE2 knockout mice. Int. J. Biol. Sci., 14, 253-265.

 

Monoson, A., Schott, E., Ard, K. et al. 2023. Air pollution and respiratory infections

Toxicol. Sci., 192 , 3-14.

 

World Health Organization. 2021. WHO global air quality guidelines: Particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide. Geneva: World Health Organization.

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Disclaimer

By using this blog, you signify your agreement to this disclaimer. Do not use this website if you do not agree to this disclaimer.

This blog is published by Sarah Stephen and Ruth Stephen, and reflects the personal views of the contributors, in their individual capacities as a concerned citizen of this planet. The term 'Ecoratorio', as well as every graphic, opinion, comment, and statement expressed in this blog are the exclusive property of the blog publishers and contributors (© 2009 - present), unless explicitly stated otherwise, and should not be disseminated without the written consent of the author(s). The views expressed in this blog are not necessarily representative of the views of any school, college, University, company, organisation, city, town, state, country, or church where the author(s) have studied, worked, worshipped, or lived, and is not sponsored or endorsed by them.


The matter on this blog has been prepared for informational purposes only, and the reader(s) should not solely rely upon this information for any purpose nor should he/she assume that this information applies to his/her specific situation. Furthermore, the matter on this blog may or may not reflect the current and future trends/developments, may or may not be general or specific, accordingly, information on this blog is not promised, or guaranteed, to be correct or complete. The publishers and author(s) explicitly disclaims all liability in respect to actions taken, or not taken, based on any, or all, the contents of this blog. Thus, the reader(s) is/are reading the posts and arriving at conclusions about the information, or about the author(s), or otherwise, at his/her own risk.

This blog may contain weblinks, which are provided solely for the reader(s) convenience. Such weblinks to another blog or website does not imply any relationship, affiliation, endorsement, responsibility, or approval of the linked resources or their contents (over which we have no control). Accessing these links will be at the reader(s)’s own risk.

The publishers and author(s) are not responsible for translation and interpretation of content. Occasionally, the blog might contain subjects which may be considered offensive from certain individuals’ points-of-view, and the author(s) refuses to accept any liability for any psychological, physical, and emotional reactions, short-term or long-term, which the posts might generate in the reader(s). However, each post in this blog is the individual opinion of the author(s) and is not intended to malign any city/town/village, state, country, continent, faith, religion, practice, ethnic group, club, organisation, company, or individual. Neither are the publishers and author(s) responsible for any statements bound to government, religious, or other laws from the reader(s)’s country of origin.

The publishers and author(s) reserves the right to update, edit, delete or otherwise remove, the posts or any comments, the latter of which might be deemed offensive or spam. The publishers and author(s) cannot warrant that the use of this blog will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that defects on this site will be corrected. The publishers and author(s) also reserves the right to publish in print media, in whole or part, any of the posts which might be an edited version. If the reader(s) has a problem with any post, the publishers and author(s) expects them to contact them, explaining the reasons for their discomfort. However, if the reader(s) choose to communicate with the publishers and author(s) by email, the reader(s) must note that since the security of unencrypted email is uncertain, sending sensitive or confidential emails holds the risks of such uncertainty and possible lack of confidentiality.

The publishers and author(s) reserve the right to change this Disclaimer, from time to time, in their sole and absolute discretion. If the reader(s) using this website after the institution of such changes, he/she is signifying their agreement to these changes. The publishers and author(s) also reserve the right to discontinue any aspect of this website at any time.

Thankyou.