Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Dengue increasing in Latin America!

Long time no post, but Google Reader informed me that this blog is still semi-active, so I figured I might as well post something I've been following in the last week or so.

With the help of one of my friend's blogs, I found a link to a Am J Trop Med Hyg article reporting that: "From 1980 through 1987, 242 deaths [due to dengue] were reported compared with 1,391 during 2000–7." (complete abstract and link to article here) That's a pretty significant increase... don't know if it's improved monitoring, an actual increase in disease, or both.

I'm currently in Quito, Ecuador-- unfortunately far from the coast where the majority of dengue cases have presented-- and was on my way to work via Trole a few days ago. Everyone reads Hoy, the free newspaper they hand out at the Trole terminals. I saw the headline "Dengue: 614 casos registrados," and when I got off, I grabbed a copy. Apparently, all those cases were registered in just the first 29 days of 2010, and there've been 8 documented cases of hemorrhagic dengue as well.

Hope all is well with those of you who visit this blog!
Jessie