AZMEX SPECIAL 24-10-14

AZMEX SPECIAL 24 OCT 2014

Note: Hermosillo and other municipalities have started aggressive spraying efforts.


Dengue fever appears in San Luis Rio Colorado
A health worker in San Luis Rio Colorado, Son., sprays against mosquitoes in efforts to prevent an outbreak of dengue fever in the city.

Posted: Thursday, October 23, 2014 5:50 pm | Updated: 6:02 pm, Thu Oct 23, 2014.
By Cesar Neyoy, Bajo El Sol

http://www.yumasun.com/news/dengue-fever-appears-in-san-luis-rio-colorado/article_adfb497c-5b18-11e4-8a2d-0017a43b2370.html

SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Son. – Five people here have shown symptoms of dengue fever since the beginning of the month, with two confirmed as suffering from the illness, according to health officials in the border city.

Although more than 1,000 cases of dengue fever have been confirmed throughout Sonora since the start of the year, the appearance of a disease associated with the tropics is rare in San Luis Rio Colorado, given the area's hot and dry desert climate, officials said.

They say recent rains and spate of humidity may have bred the mosquito variety known to carry and transmit dengue fever, Aedes aegypti. The illness cannot be spread by human-to-human contact.
Symptoms of what is known as "classic dengue" are fever, joint or muscle pain and skin irritations. The less-common hemorrhagic dengue poses greater health risk, with more intense symptoms including changes in blood pressure, bleeding in the gums and presence of blood in vomit or diarrhea.

Sergio Kelly, the Sonora state health department's representative in San Luis Rio Colorado, said dengue fever was found earlier this month in mosquito samples collected in and around the city.

The two patients confirmed as suffering dengue are under medical treatment, said health officials, who did not clarify whether they are currently hospitalized.
Apart from those patients and the three others who are probable cases, four other people are under observation for possible infection, he said.

Since the start of the year, 1,114 cases of dengue fever have been confirmed throughout Sonora, compared with 1,208 confirmed cases statewide in all of 2013. Most of the cases occurred in cities and communities in the southern half of the state that borders Arizona.

Aide Patino, a spokeswoman in San Luis Rio Colorado for the state government, said the health department has sought to prevent further spread of the disease in the border city through spraying and a media campaign encouraging residents to take steps on their own to prevent mosquito reproduction.
"What we really need is the participation of the people, keeping their property clean and picking up any item or receptacle where water can accumulate and breed mosquitoes," she said.


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