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Article Excerpt
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Dengue fever has reached epidemic proportions in El Salvador this year, killing nine children and one adult. The epidemic, which appears to be receding now, reached its highest levels in June. Some doctors and political leaders say the administration of President Francisco Flores did not call a health alert early enough, thus slowing the mobilization necessary to stamp out the virus' transmitter, the Aedes aegypti mosquito. They also criticize Flores for refusing Cuba's offer to send doctors.
The illness, sometimes called break-bone fever, attacks people in tropical and subtropical regions. Classic dengue is characterized by intense fever, migraine headaches, rashes, and pain in muscles and joints and behind the eyes.
Dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF), a less common but more dangerous form of dengue, is known to cause internal bleeding, liver enlargement, and, in severe cases, circulatory failure. The recent deaths in El Salvador are attributed to DHF, which is also a leading cause of hospitalization and death among children in several Asian countries.
Mosquito can breed in any solid object that holds water
The World Health Organization (WHO) says that the Aedes aegypti breeds primarily in containers like earthenware jars, metal drums, and concrete cisterns used for domestic water storage, as well as discarded plastic food containers, used automobile tires, and other items that collect rainwater.
Horacio Toro Ocampo, a representative of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), says that, after the Salvadoran population took measures to get rid of breeding...
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