Health

Hemorrhagic dengue alert in Baja California Sur, Mexico

by patgarcia | December 23, 2008 at 06:46 pm

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This morning I heard someone knocking at my door, looked out the window and saw someone from the Health Department, as soon as I opened, I was asked if there was anybody in my house with high fever and flu-like symptoms. I said no, she said thanks wrote something down and left quickly . I figured "there must be a Dengue outbreak", but it seemed strange, I hadn't seen any mosquitoes around the area. Later during the day I found out there is indeed a red alert for the state, 155 cases have been confirmed, nine of those being of the hemorrhagic kind which could be devastating and mortal.
The alert began when a dengue case was identified at el Centenario, very close to the city of La Paz, where a young woman died due to hemorrhagic dengue.

The following was published yesterday.

Notimex.-La Paz- Autoridades estatales de salud mantienen la alerta epidemiológica por brote de dengue, luego de contabilizar 155 casos, de los cuales se confirmaron nueve de tipo hemorrágico y el restó clásico.

El secretario de Salud en Baja California Sur, Francisco Cardoza Macías, dijo que los casos registrados en 2008 pusieron en alerta a las autoridades sanitarias pues se generaron en un corto plazo y en zonas específicas, lo que pudo generar una epidemia.

Recordó que el primer brote apareció en la zona de El Centenario cercano a la ciudad de La Paz, que generó acciones de emergencia enérgicas para controlarlo, especialmente debido al fallecimiento de una mujer joven a causa de dengue hemorrágico.

El funcionario resaltó, en entrevista, que hasta la fecha se contabilizan en la entidad 155 casos, todos ellos confirmados por el Laboratorio Estatal de Salud Pública.

This time the alert has continued until December and hasn't stopped.

Nov 1, 2008 Parts of Baja California Sur are experiencing an outbreak of Dengue Fever. Dengue is a mosquito-borne infection which, in recent years, has become a major international public health concern. Outbreaks have been reported in Mulege, Comitan, El Centenario, La Paz and San Jose del Cabo. Dengue returns every fall following the rains to many places in the southern portion of the peninsula and the threat usually abates by late November.

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