Title – Dengue fever outbreak in BoliviaSource – www.bbc.co.uk
Date – 3rd February 2009
South America has truly suffered at the hands of Dengue Fever over the past few years, with serious outbreaks in Paraguay, Brazil and now Bolivia.
It is a disease that can, when an outbreak takes hold, devastate whole communities and has is several cases over the last few years almost reached epidemic levels. Governments have had to react by sending in the army to help set up temporary hospitals to help treat all those affected.
The problem of course is that Dengue Fever is spread by mosquitoes who carry the virus from one carrier to the next; so as the number of infected animals and humans grows so do the number of mosquitoes who act as carriers. The only way to prevent the spread getting more serious is to eradicate the mosquitoes, educate local populations and provide them with the means to protect themselves.
Travellers tend to under-estimate the threat from Dengue Fever or be ignorant of it altogether. What most do not realise is the devastating and potentially life threatening affect of the fever not to mention the associated pain (see
My Dance with Dengue). Add to this the burden they place on the health services of those countries that are affected and it becomes obvious why they should take every precaution to protect themselves.Date – 3rd February 2009
South America has truly suffered at the hands of Dengue Fever over the past few years, with serious outbreaks in Paraguay, Brazil and now Bolivia.
It is a disease that can, when an outbreak takes hold, devastate whole communities and has is several cases over the last few years almost reached epidemic levels. Governments have had to react by sending in the army to help set up temporary hospitals to help treat all those affected.
The problem of course is that Dengue Fever is spread by mosquitoes who carry the virus from one carrier to the next; so as the number of infected animals and humans grows so do the number of mosquitoes who act as carriers. The only way to prevent the spread getting more serious is to eradicate the mosquitoes, educate local populations and provide them with the means to protect themselves.
Travellers tend to under-estimate the threat from Dengue Fever or be ignorant of it altogether. What most do not realise is the devastating and potentially life threatening affect of the fever not to mention the associated pain (see
I have urged travellers before in this blog to be aware of Dengue Fever, to be aware that the mosquitoes which transmit Dengue are generally more active during the day rather than at dusk or during the night as might be expected. So make sure if you are in an area affected by Dengue Fever (and that is much of the tropical world) that you protect yourself from mosquito bites day and night; cover up; use repellents and insecticides; sleep under a permithrine impregnated net; avoid complacency or the ‘I don’t get bitten defence’; use tried and tested products and avoid untested holistic methods; consider your location and stay away from areas with stagnant pools where mosquitoes breed; and if you know an areas is suffering from a sever outbreak such as the Santa Cruz area of Bolivia is at the moment, think about re-routing or at least double up or triple up on your bite prevention.
There are currently no prophylactic drugs available for Dengue Fever and there is no known cure. Swift diagnosis and treatment of the symptoms can reduce the worst of the side effects and with supportive medical treatment it is not often fatal. However one of the four strains of Dengue (Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever), is more dangerous than the others and catching Dengue more than once does seem to raise the dangers considerably. One thing is for certain, catching Dengue Fever will ruin a trip or a substantial part of a trip and it is never good for your body to have to go through the strain that Dengue puts on it.
Bite avoidance is certainly the wisest choice.
At Beyond The Blue (Safe Gap Year) our Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety & Awareness Workshop (GYITSA) considers issues of Travel Health alongside sessions on Travel Safety, Travel Equipment, Travel Insurance, Destination Advice and more. Too many travellers arrive home with tropical diseases that are avoidable, many of these can be avoided by taking a few simple steps to prevent infection in the first place.
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