Dengue Surging in Mexico, Latin America

[jpak]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/tech/2007/mar/30/033004662.html

The deadly hemorrhagic form of dengue fever is increasing dramatically in Mexico, and experts predict a surge throughout Latin America fueled by climate change, migration and faltering mosquito eradication efforts.

Overall dengue cases have increased by more than 600 percent in Mexico since 2001, and worried officials are sending special teams to tourist resorts to spray pesticides and remove garbage and standing water where mosquitoes breed ahead of the peak Easter Week vacation season.

Even classic dengue - known as "bonebreak fever" - can cause severe flu-like symptoms, excruciating joint pain, high fever, nausea and rashes.

More alarming is that a deadly hemorrhagic form of the disease, which adds internal and external bleeding to the symptoms - is becoming more common. It accounts for one in four cases in Mexico, compared with one in 50 seven years ago, according to Mexico's Public Health Department.

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[angstlessk]

1. 'sending special teams to resort areas'..What about populated areas?

they only care about tourists??? not their own people??? FUCK CAPITALISM

[DCKit]

2. Wait until it crosses the border.... Or the Gulf of Mexican't

Malaria's on the way too, Chagas is becoming epidemic in So. Cal.

But NONE of this is due to global warming.

[phantom power]

3. Groovy.

We'll probably be seeing it in Phoenix one of these days. If my internal organs are virally pureed, I promise I'll try to make one last heroic post to warn you before I expire.

[Dogmudgeon]

4. I had a cousin who died of an hemorrhagic fever

It was every bit as horrifying as they say it is. He was 44.

The unit he was in had to be isolated, since it looked like Marburg or Ebola, and they didn't know where or how he got it. (They never did figure out either.) Even worse, he was an executive for a restaurant chain and flew all over the world. The staff report noted "patient is in pain and considerable emotional distress" (that's from memory), yet they withheld morphine. After he died, the coroner noted that his body was black-and-blue and had developed pre-rigor-mortis rictus, probably from the last hour or so of his life. They strongly urged his wife to NOT view the body; I think she actually did do so, but never spoke of it.

I had a severe case of plain-old H1N1 Influenza A in 1990 which damn near killed me. I had a 105F+ fever, and the pain involved was absofuckingly brutal.

People far underestimate the destructive power of these diseases.

--p!

[phantom power]

5. Some diseases are living nightmares.

Bad bad ways to die. My recollection is that severe influenza can cause hemorrhaging.