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Panama News Briefs

Residents urged to protect their health by cleaning the places where they live and work

Dengue alert

by Eric Jackson

The situation ought to improve just a bit with the coming of dry season allowing for fewer little puddle in which the Aedes aegypti mosquito to breed, but at rainy season's end the government had declared a dengue fever alert. The mosquito-borne infection, for which there is no vaccine or cure, is usually a week-long flu-like misery but it can lead to life-threatening hemorrhages and at least one person has died from it in Panama in recent weeks.

More than 2,000 cases of dengue have been reported in 2006, but mostly the ailment doesn't get treated or reported by doctors because it's cared for much like a case of influenza. Over the five to seven day ordinary course of dengue fever, there are body aches that have given the malady the nickname "bone crusher fever," an initial day or two of high fever, an easing of the condition for a day or so and then a return of the fever, though not usually as high as before, and quite frequently accompanied by a rash.

Sometimes, in people affected for the second or subsequent time by one or more of the four types of dengue, that rash is internal bleeding which can be controlled with proper medical attention but can also be fatal.

The Aedes aegypti --- also the insect vector for yellow fever when there is a reservoir of people or animals carrying that virus from which to spread it --- breeds in small, clear pools of water like those that accumulate in cans thrown by the side of the road, water collecting trays under refrigerators, dishes left under plant pots and so on. Panama has not seen a yellow fever case in many decades and tourists are not required to have yellow fever shots.

Municipal and health ministry inspectors have for several months been going around issuing tickets for those maintaining mosquito breeding conditions on their property. Several businesses were ordered closed for repeated severe violations.

There has been some limited outdoor insecticide spraying. The approach is that in a neighborhood where a dengue case is know, there will be spraying in an attempt to keep mosquitoes from spreading the infection from the sick person to anyone else. There are environmental and budgetary constraints that prevent widespread spraying, which in any case over time will usually just create spray-resistent insect strains.