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Dengue epidemic surges in Latin America, Caribbean
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 29 - 09 - 2007


Dengue fever is spreading
across Latin America and the Caribbean in one of the worst
outbreaks in decades, causing agonizing joint pain for
hundreds of thousands of people and killing nearly 200 so
far this year, AP reported.
The mosquitoes that carry dengue are thriving in expanded
urban slums scattered with water-collecting trash and old
tires. Experts say dengue is approaching record levels this
year as many countries enter their wettest months.
«If we do not slow it down, it will intensify and take a
greater social and economic toll on these countries,» said
Dr. Jose Luis San Martin, head of anti-dengue efforts for
the Pan American Health Organization.
Dengue has already damaged the economies of countries
across the region by driving away tourists, according to a
document prepared for a PAHO conference beginning Monday in
Washington.
Some countries have focused mosquito eradication efforts
on areas popular with tourists. Mexico sent hundreds of
workers to the resorts of Puerto Vallarta, Cancun and
Acapulco this year to try to avert outbreaks.
Health ministers from across the region meet at the PAHO
conference and San Martin said he will urge them to devote
more resources to dengue fever.
The tropical virus was once thought to have been nearly
eliminated from Latin America, but it has steadily gained
strength since the early 1980s. Now, officials fear it
could emerge as a pandemic similar to one that became a
leading killer of children in Southeast Asia following
World War II.
«The main concern is what's happening in the Americas
will recapitulate what has happened in Southeast Asia, and
we will start seeing more and more severe types of cases of
dengue as time progresses,» said Dr. Wellington Sun, the
chief of the San Juan dengue office of the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.
Officials say the virus is likely to grow deadlier in part
because tourism and migration are circulating four
different strains across the region. A person exposed to
one strain may develop immunity to that strain _ but
subsequent exposure to another strain makes it more likely
the person will develop the hemorrhagic form.
The disease _ known as «bonebreak fever» because of the
pain _ can incapacitate patients for as long as a week with
flu-like symptoms. A deadly hemorrhagic form, which also
causes internal and external bleeding, accounts for less
than 5 percent of cases but has shown signs of growing.
So far this year, 630,356 dengue cases have been reported
in the Americas _ most in Brazil, Venezuela, or Colombia _
with 12,147 cases of hemorrhagic fever and 183 deaths,
according to the Pan American Health Organization.
Brazil alone had reported 438,949 cases and 98 deaths
through the first seven months of the year _ both notable
increases over year-earlier figures.
With the spread expected to accelerate during the upcoming
rainy season in many countries, cases this year could
exceed the 1,015,000 reported in 2002, according to San
Martin.
In Puerto Rico, where 5,592 suspected cases and three
deaths have been reported, some lawmakers called this week
for the health secretary to resign.
In the Dominican Republic, which has reported 25 deaths
this year, the health department announced Thursday that it
would train 2.5 million public school students to encourage
parents and neighbors to eliminate standing water.
The U.S. CDC in Atlanta has warned Americans visiting
Latin American and Caribbean destinations to use mosquito
repellant and stay inside screened areas whenever possible.
«The danger is that the doctors at home don't recognize
the dengue,» Sun said. «The doctors need to raise their
level of suspicion for any traveler who returns with a
fever.»
Researchers have not yet developed a vaccine against
dengue and Sun said that for now, the only way to stop the
virus is to contain the mosquito population _ a task that
relies of countless, relentless individual efforts
including installing screen doors and making sure
mosquitoes are not breeding in garbage.
«It's like telling people to stop smoking,» he said.
«They may do it for a while, but they don't do it on a
consistent basis and without doing that, it's not
effective.»
While dengue is increasing around the developing world,
the problem is most dramatic in the Americas, according to
the CDC.
Health officials believe the resurgence of the
malaria-like illness is due partly to a premature easing of
eradication programs in the 1970s.
Migration and tourism also have carried new strains of the
virus across national borders, even into the United States,
which had largely wiped out the disease after a 1922
outbreak that infected a half-million people.
Mexico has been struggling with an alarming increase in
the deadly hemorrhagic form of dengue, which now accounts
for roughly one in four cases. The government has confirmed
3,249 cases of hemorrhagic dengue for the year through
Sept. 15, up from 1,924 last year.
The CDC says there is no drug to treat hemorrhagic dengue,
but proper treatment, including rest, fluids and pain
relief, can reduce death rates to about 1 percent.
San Martin said he use the meetings starting Monday to
urge enforcement of trash disposal regulations, more
investment in mosquito control and new incentives for
communities to participate.
«It is a battle of every government, every community and
every individual,» he said.


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