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Following Previous AP one year ago the experts in health in Argentina were exceeded by the virus H1N1, which had in the South American country one of the levels of mortality more high places of the world. Now another illness put the experts in state of alert.
It is a question of the leptospirosis, an illness that transmits across a bacterium called Leptospira, which is spread by rodents and other animals, especially the dogs.
In what it goes of the year, 16 persons died in Argentina because of the illness and the Direction of Epidemiolog?a of the Department of Health confirmed 305 cases of contagion, the worst sprout from 2003. But what more worries the doctors they are not the absolute numbers, but the increase in the deadliness of the leptospirosis.
Jorge San Juan, the director of Infectolog?a of the Hospital Mu?iz of Buenos Aires, said to BBC World that a few years ago the most serious presentation of the illness was generating renal insufficiency.
In the last years, nevertheless, there was detected a more worrying picture as consequence of the bacterium: the pulmonary hemorrhage, which is much more lethal.
To the urban zones Also, the information reveals changes in the place of prevalency of the infection.
Whereas previously the leptospirosis was considered to be a rural illness, the most recent cases happened in big cities, in particular in poor zones where the garbage is accumulated.
According to Saint John, the precarious urban developments are propitious for the proliferation of rodents, which transmit the bacterium. Of 16 fatal victims of this year, 15 were living in the province of Santa Fe, which suffered problems with the water.
One believes that many dogs, which also transmit the evil, become infected across these rats.
The animals carry the bacterium in his kidneys and often they do not present symptoms.
Nevertheless, the contagion with the human beings happens when these contact the urine been contaminated with the animals. The bacterium can join across wounds the skin or across permeable zones, as the eyes.
" In the majority of the cases the leptospirosis proliferates in zones where there have been floods and where there are many free animals ", pointed out Saint John.
Polemic for the dogs The increase in the sprout of the leptospirosis has led to a debate with regard to how preparing the illness.
According to the studies, many of the human beings who endured the evil were contagious of a dog.
An investigation realized in the City of Buenos Aires showed that 50 % of the street dogs presents the bacterium.
For it, some experts suggest that the best way of preparing the contagion is to kill the dogs without proprietor.
Nevertheless, groups of citizens rose against the proposal. According to the lovers of the animals the leptospirosis is not a " dogs' illness " but an evil of the poverty, and it must face up as such.
An alternative solution would be to vaccinate to the animals against the illness, something that, according to Saint John, is difficult to help and needs " a political decision ".
Meanwhile, the expert thought about how to take calmness with regard to the gravity of the illness.
" It is not like the porcine flu, but it is a problem of health that is in increase and it is necessary to prepare it ", it pointed out.
It is a question of the leptospirosis, an illness that transmits across a bacterium called Leptospira, which is spread by rodents and other animals, especially the dogs.
In what it goes of the year, 16 persons died in Argentina because of the illness and the Direction of Epidemiolog?a of the Department of Health confirmed 305 cases of contagion, the worst sprout from 2003. But what more worries the doctors they are not the absolute numbers, but the increase in the deadliness of the leptospirosis.
Jorge San Juan, the director of Infectolog?a of the Hospital Mu?iz of Buenos Aires, said to BBC World that a few years ago the most serious presentation of the illness was generating renal insufficiency.
In the last years, nevertheless, there was detected a more worrying picture as consequence of the bacterium: the pulmonary hemorrhage, which is much more lethal.
To the urban zones Also, the information reveals changes in the place of prevalency of the infection.
Whereas previously the leptospirosis was considered to be a rural illness, the most recent cases happened in big cities, in particular in poor zones where the garbage is accumulated.
According to Saint John, the precarious urban developments are propitious for the proliferation of rodents, which transmit the bacterium. Of 16 fatal victims of this year, 15 were living in the province of Santa Fe, which suffered problems with the water.
One believes that many dogs, which also transmit the evil, become infected across these rats.
The animals carry the bacterium in his kidneys and often they do not present symptoms.
Nevertheless, the contagion with the human beings happens when these contact the urine been contaminated with the animals. The bacterium can join across wounds the skin or across permeable zones, as the eyes.
" In the majority of the cases the leptospirosis proliferates in zones where there have been floods and where there are many free animals ", pointed out Saint John.
Polemic for the dogs The increase in the sprout of the leptospirosis has led to a debate with regard to how preparing the illness.
According to the studies, many of the human beings who endured the evil were contagious of a dog.
An investigation realized in the City of Buenos Aires showed that 50 % of the street dogs presents the bacterium.
For it, some experts suggest that the best way of preparing the contagion is to kill the dogs without proprietor.
Nevertheless, groups of citizens rose against the proposal. According to the lovers of the animals the leptospirosis is not a " dogs' illness " but an evil of the poverty, and it must face up as such.
An alternative solution would be to vaccinate to the animals against the illness, something that, according to Saint John, is difficult to help and needs " a political decision ".
Meanwhile, the expert thought about how to take calmness with regard to the gravity of the illness.
" It is not like the porcine flu, but it is a problem of health that is in increase and it is necessary to prepare it ", it pointed out.
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