Gert van der Hoek
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Chilean authorities fear dengue affecting Easter Island
The Chilean government is worried about an outbreak of dengue fever on the Easter Island, Nestor Iribarra, health chief of the Chilean coastal city of Valparaiso, said on Monday.
"Prevention has been intensified on the island, and we are working with the community to isolate the susceptible people from those with fever ... (as) we are suspicious of everything," Iribarra said.
The Chilean Public Health Institute said on Sunday that a total of nine people had been affected by the outbreak of dengue fever in the country, and they were all on the island, which is over 3,500 km from continental South America.
Valparaiso's regional health authorities, while starting to spray insecticide in the island, have called on Easter Islanders to clean their homes and water tanks to prevent the breeding of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, which spreads the epidemic.
Dengue fever, a viral infection spread by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, is a serious health problem in many South American and Caribbean countries. Recently Paraguay, Bolivia, Brazil, Venezuela and Ecuador, all reported an outbreak of the epidemic.
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.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that the only way to fight dengue is to stamp out mosquitoes, which reproduce in stagnant water bodies -- from puddles to lakes and reservoirs. Some 50 million people are infected with dengue each year, most of them in the tropical regions.
http://english.people.com.cn/200703/20/eng20070320_359366.html
The Chilean government is worried about an outbreak of dengue fever on the Easter Island, Nestor Iribarra, health chief of the Chilean coastal city of Valparaiso, said on Monday.
"Prevention has been intensified on the island, and we are working with the community to isolate the susceptible people from those with fever ... (as) we are suspicious of everything," Iribarra said.
The Chilean Public Health Institute said on Sunday that a total of nine people had been affected by the outbreak of dengue fever in the country, and they were all on the island, which is over 3,500 km from continental South America.
Valparaiso's regional health authorities, while starting to spray insecticide in the island, have called on Easter Islanders to clean their homes and water tanks to prevent the breeding of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, which spreads the epidemic.
Dengue fever, a viral infection spread by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, is a serious health problem in many South American and Caribbean countries. Recently Paraguay, Bolivia, Brazil, Venezuela and Ecuador, all reported an outbreak of the epidemic.
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.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that the only way to fight dengue is to stamp out mosquitoes, which reproduce in stagnant water bodies -- from puddles to lakes and reservoirs. Some 50 million people are infected with dengue each year, most of them in the tropical regions.
http://english.people.com.cn/200703/20/eng20070320_359366.html