The recent news of Channel 3 actor Thrisadee "Por" Sahawong being in a coma for a week due to dengue fever has sparked a public scare about the tropical illness, mostly overlooked by people in Thailand until now.
The 37-year-old was sent to Ramathibodi Hospital last Monday and required resuscitation multiple times during the course of the week.
While his life hangs by a thread, the public has started to ask how life-threatening dengue fever actually is and if the mosquito-borne viral infection is preventable.
First of all, the fatality rate is very low. Only small minority of cases involve severe complications.
This year there have been 107,500 Thais infected with the dengue virus. Of this number, 106 died, which accounts for around 0.1% of those affected.
Thailand has seen a sharp increase in the number of dengue cases. In 2014, only an estimated 40,000 people caught the disease, 41 of whom died from it.