Wednesday April 12 10:36 PM ET
Dengue fever could worsen in 21st century.
By Carlos A. DeJuana
BUENOS AIRES, Apr 12 (Reuters) -- Outbreaks of dengue fever and its sometimes
deadly hemorrhagic strain will continue to increase across the Americas in
the 21st century unless governments boost their will to combat the tropical
virus, experts said.
Cases of dengue are on the rise in almost every country in North and South
America even though the disease was almost wiped out by a 1962 plan to
eradicate the mosquito that carries and spreads the virus.
But a lack of coordination between and within governments, dwindling
resources and declining awareness of the problem has led to a resurgence of
dengue in every Western Hemisphere country except for Canada, Chile, Bermuda
and Cuba--which have largely eradicated it.
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``If we continue with our present conditions, we're going to have serious
problems,'' Eric Martinez, a Cuban specialist and author on dengue, told
Reuters at the 9th International Congress on Infectious Diseases in Buenos
Aires.
Dengue fever, for which there is no vaccine, causes excruciating muscle and
joint pains, high fevers and severe headaches. Its more virulent form called
hemorrhagic dengue can cause internal bleeding and death.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the
number of cases of dengue fever in the Americas more than doubled to 741,794
in 1998 from 364,945 in 1997. Even in the US there were 90
laboratory-diagnosed cases of dengue in 1998, including one death.
Martinez said socioeconomic conditions, public health services, and
preventive and vigilance programs need to improve before authorities can
combat the mosquito and the disease.
``If these things don't occur--and presently they aren't--at the doors of the
21st century, we will have to say that the 21st century will be like no other
in terms of outbreaks and epidemics of dengue and hemorrhagic dengue,''
Martinez said.
Furthermore, global warming is increasing the geographical areas in which the
mosquito can live, he said adding, ``this is a global problem.''
Francisco Pinheiro of the Pan American Health Organization said community
participation and awareness of dengue and how to combat it was central toward
its eradication.
Argentina has recently increased its dengue awareness programmes fearing an
outbreak of the disease at home after the number of cases in neighbouring
Paraguay reached what the government there called an ``epidemic explosion.''
The Argentine government has said Paraguay has about 10,000 confirmed cases
of dengue in a country of 5 million people, with one fatality. In March,
Argentina detected 170 cases of dengue, all Paraguayans or people who had
been in the South American country.
But even a lack of coordination between different regional governments in
Argentina can allow the mosquito to prosper. While Buenos Aires, the
country's wealthiest district, is taking precautions against dengue, some of
its poorer neighboring municipalities have not.
``There's a lack of will to say we have to efficiently control the
(dengue-carrying) Aedes aegypti mosquito and dedicate the funds and, more
importantly, the human resources,'' said Alfredo Seijo, a doctor at Buenos
Aires' Muniz Hospital.
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