Update on Dengue Fever which is very widespread in the region. Note some do NOT participate in reporting their cases to this international organization trying to track outbreaks.
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[4] Puerto Rico
Date: Thu 10 Jan 2008
Source: PR Inside [edited]
<http://www.pr-inside.com/puerto-rico-s-dengue-fever-outbreak-last-r381248.htm>
Puerto Rico saw 11 000 cases of dengue last year [2007], the fever's worst
outbreak in the US Caribbean territory in nearly a decade, a health
official said on Thursday [10 Jan 2008].
Dengue, which is spread by mosquitoes, killed 4 adults and 4 children in
Puerto Rico during 2007, state epidemiologist Enid Garcia said in releasing
the final tally for the year. The oldest victim was 80 and the youngest 5
months old. "It wasn't the worst we've had, but it was a serious epidemic,"
Garcia said in an interview with The Associated Press.
The 10 964 cases recorded for the year [2007] were the most in Puerto Rico
since a 1998 outbreak that caused 17 000 cases and 19 deaths, Garcia said.
A 1994 outbreak totaled 24 000 cases.
In one of the worst years for dengue in recent decades, Latin America and
the Caribbean counted nearly 800 000 reported cases and nearly 250 deaths
in 2007, according to the Pan American Health Organization. Final figures
were not yet available.There is no vaccine for the tropical virus, which generally causes fever,
headaches and extreme joint and muscle pain, among other symptoms. Once
thought to have been nearly eliminated from Latin America, dengue has
gained strength in the region since the early 1980s in part because tourism
and migration are circulating 4 different strains, increasing the risk of
multiple exposure and making it more likely an infection will develop into
the severe hemorrhagic form of the virus.
- --
communicated by:
ProMED-mail <
promed@promedmail.org>
[Puerto Rico can be located in the Caribbean on the ProMED-mail health map
cited above. - Mod.TY]
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[5] Venezuela (Zulia)
Date: Sun 13 Jan 2008
Source: La Verdad [in Spanish, translated & summarised Mod.TY, edited]
<http://www.laverdad.com/detallenew.asp?mostrar=10&idcat=9&idnot=67268>
During the 1st week of 2008, 650 dengue cases were recorded in the state of
Zulia, according to information provided by Nancy Perez, viceminister of
health. Of these, 239 cases were registered in Maracaibo, 108 in San
Francisco, 35 in Machiques and 241 in the rest of the municipalities. The
state [Zulia] leads in the national dengue case statistics. According to
the numbers from the National Health System, 2007 ended with 18 683 dengue
cases in the entire region.
National and regional health authorities met yesterday [12 Jan 2008] in the
Corito Medical Diagnostic Center to officially inaugurate the [dengue]
preventive, corrective and eradication campaign.
Adaly Abreu, coordinator of the Cristo de Aranza neighborhood Health and
Defense Committee, indicated that the campaign started in that neighborhood
because there were 16 dengue cases during the 1st week of January [2008],
the highest number of all the neighborhoods.
Just in this neighborhood, more than 15 000 families will benefit from the
National Plan for the Fight against Dengue in Zulia. The hope is to extend
the campaign to Manuel Dagnino, Francisco Eugenio Bustamante, Cecilio
Acosta, Chiquinquira and the rest of the state.
This project, presided over by the Mayor of Maracaibo, will pursue a
thorough environmental clean-up to hit and eradicate _Aedes aegypti_
mosquito breeding sites, the cause of the disease [virus transmission].
- --
communicated by:
ProMED-ESP <
promed@promedmail.org>
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[6] Brazil (Rio de Janeiro)
Date: Sun 13 Jan 2008
Source: Folha Online [in Portuguese, translated & summarised Mod.TY, edited]
<http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/cotidiano/ult95u363007.shtml>
An adolescent died of suspected DHF Saturday [12 Jan 2008] in Duque de
Caxias, in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro. He was admitted to
the municipal hospital on Friday [11 Jan 2008] but died. A blood sample was
sent to the Caju Hospital in Rio city, where the cause of death is being
investigated. The results will be available within a week.
The secretary of health of Duque de Caxias said that a team will be sent to
fight this possible dengue focus in the area where this adolescent lived
but that the area did not pose a risk [of dengue].
Last week [week of 6 Jan 2008], the municipality initiated an offensive
against dengue and examined nearly 3500 houses. On this occasion, the
prefecture collected [water-holding containers] and taught [the residents]
to eliminate the breeding sites of the vector mosquito.
Despite registering one of the lowest indices of dengue cases, Duque de
Caxias is neighbor to Mage municipality, a locality that presented a high
dengue [case] index last year [2007].
In the entire state of Rio de Janeiro in 2007, more than 60 000 dengue
cases were registered, a number 2 times greater than the year before, 2006.
- --
communicated by:
ProMED_PORT <
promed@promedmail.org>
[The people's perceptions, as well as those of the press, are bizarre. A
few cases of sylvan [jungle/rural] yellow fever, which does not represent
practically any risk, raised a big commotion, while an increasing dengue
epidemic, with an increasing number of serious cases and deaths, causes
little impact. - Mod.LJS
An interactive ProMED health map of Brazil can be accessed at:
<http://healthmap.org/promed?v=-10.8,-53.1,4>. - Mod.TY]
