Monsoon maladies.

The advent of monsoon in India provides a welcome relief from the dry hot summer and brings waves of life to parched landscapes across the country, but the cooling showers also bring along a lot of diseases. Infectious diseases like Dengue fever, Chikungunya, Hantaviruses, Nipah virus, Chandipura virus, Malaria and the novel H1N1 influenza virus had emerged or re-emerged as major public health problems through the last decade in India. Bacterial disease like Plague, Leptospirosis, Anthrax, Brucellosis, Enterohemorrhagic E. Coli, Salmonella, Shigella and Staphylococci also remain a threat during this season [1,2].