Cases of Dengue Fever Double in Costa Rica

[Gert van der Hoek]

Cases of Dengue Up 115% over Last Year in Costa Rica

By Amanda Roberson


About 115% more cases of dengue have sprung up so far this year compared to the same period last year, leaving one Costa Rican family to mourn the loss of a baby who died from the hemorrhagic form of this mosquito-transmitted disease.

Isaac Alonso Montenegro, one year and six months old, died April 19 at the National Children's Hospital in San Jos? after being transferred there from his Southern Zone home of Paso Canoas, according to the daily La Naci?n.

Public Health Minister Mar?a Luisa Avila reported Friday that a lab test of his tissue sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in the U.S. city of Atlanta confirmed dengue as his cause of death.

According to statistics the ministry provided The Tico Times yesterday, 4,808 cases of dengue have been registered from the beginning of this year to May 19, 115% more than the 2,239 cases recorded during the same period last year. About 40 cases of potentially deadly hemorrhagic dengue have been recorded, La Naci?n reported.

Coastal regions are the areas hardest hit by dengue, according to Teresita Solano, the ministry's director of epidemic vigilance.

There are ?many factors? that have contributed to this increase in cases over last year, including heavier than usual rains at the beginning of this rainy season and residents failing to clean up mosquito-breeding containers with standing water, she said.

?We have to work hard to avoid there being a greater increase in cases,? Solano said, explaining that the ministry is focusing its anti-dengue efforts on educating the public about how to prevent this disease from spreading. It is also fumigating a few high-risk areas, although it sees large-scale fumigation as the ?last alternative,? to combating the disease.

?The most important thing is that people clean up the areas around their homes and their communities,? she said. Preventing dengue is ?as much citizens' job as it is the ministry's.?

http://www.ticotimes.net/dailyarchive/2007_05/0523071.htm

 

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Cases of Dengue Up in Costa Rica

Re: Cases of Dengue Up in Costa Rica

Santiago hospitals report rise in dengue cases


Santiago de los Caballeros.- Public hospitals and private clinics in the city are reporting that many people from a range of urban neighborhoods and rural communities are being treated for dengue fever. At the Regional Pediatric University Hospital, Dr Arturo Grull?n Julia said that one woman had brought three of her children in with dengue.

Other patients have come in from the areas of El Ingenio, Los Platanitos, Ciruelitos, Cienfuegos, the communities of La Canela and Bella Vista, and the cities of La Vega, Moca, Nagua, Dajab?n, Montecristi, Mao and Puerto Plata.

The increased number of children and adults suffering from the disease is causing public concern, while the Public Health authorities are trying to control it through sanitary measures.

Although no precise figures were provided, Dr. Carlos Tolentino Almonte from the Regional University Hospital said that they were seeing many cases of dengue, adding that preventive measures needed to be employed to prevent this number from escalating.

http://www.dominicantoday.com/app/article.aspx?id=24066

 

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Cases of Dengue Fever Double in Costa Rica

Dengue fever cases double in Costa Rica in first half of 2007



The number of dengue fever cases in Costa Rica has doubled to 6,870 in the first half of 2007, compared to the same period of last year, the Health Ministry said on Thursday.

Meanwhile, 69 people, including two fatalities, contracted the deadly variant of hemorrhagic dengue in the first six months of this year, only three cases short of the figure recorded in the whole of last year, according to the ministry.

Dengue fever, a viral infection spread by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, is a serious health problem in many Central American and Caribbean countries. Its symptoms include high fever, nausea, rash, backache and headache.

Most mainstream dengue cases are not fatal, but the hemorrhagic variant, which causes severe internal bleeding as blood vessels collapse, kills one in 20 of the infected.

Health Minister Maria Luisa Avila said the increase of dengue cases was mainly due to the advent of monsoon and the ubiquitous bodies of water.

The official urged people to fight dengue by stamping out mosquitoes, which reproduce in bodies of water from puddles to lakes and reservoirs.

Some 50 million people are infected with dengue each year, most of them in tropical regions.

http://english.people.com.cn/200706/29/eng20070629_388603.html