Paraguay put on dengue alert

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Title – Paraguay put on dengue alert
Source – www.bbc.co.uk
Date – 30th January 2008

Dengue strikes again, this time in Brazil’s neighbour, Paraguay.

Dengue has no vaccine or cure and can be fatal. The fact that in travellers it is very rarely fatal, should not make people think that they should not be concerned, catching Dengue is not like having flu, it is a debilitating disease that can certainly end a trip and can take a while to recover from. People that catch Dengue can develop immunity to that particular variant, but this actually makes Dengue more dangerous as any subsequent contraction of any of the other variants of the disease can be substantially more dangerous and most fatalities are as a result of multiple infections.

As part of our Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety and Awareness workshop we examine the issue of Travel Health and what you need to look out for in the particular area of the world you plan to travel to. With mosquitoes accounting for so many fatalities and infections from the diseases that they transmit, we not only look at which medical solutions might be available but also the best ways of preventing yourself being bitten in the first place.

In the case of Dengue fever, where no cure, vaccination or prophylactic is available, bite prevention and protection is more important than ever and even if there is probably no full proof way of stopping bites altogether, the practices we teach you will help reduce your vulnerability to an absolute minimum.

Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com