The Pan American Health Organization/ World Health Organization (PAHO/ WHO) is urging member countries that have mosquitoes that transmit dengue and chikungunya to ramp up their vector-control efforts and prepare for a possible rise in patients suffering from these diseases.
The recommendations come as the peak transmission season for dengue approaches.
In a statement yesterday, PAHO said that since the start of the year, countries in the Americas have reported nearly 850,000 cases of dengue and 470 deaths from severe dengue. Between December 2013 and 5 September 2014, 650,000 cases of chikungunya, including 37 deaths, were reported in the Americas.
Both dengue and chikungunya are transmitted by Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes, which are present in the vast majority of countries of the Americas.
PAHO/WHO is calling on countries to boost existing dengue prevention and control strategies and apply them to chikungunya as well.
PAHO/WHO recommends revved-up efforts in six areas: patient care, social communication, epidemiological surveillance, laboratory-based diagnostic capacity, integrated vector (mosquito) control, and the environment.
PAHO/WHO recommended information campaigns to educate the public on how to eliminate mosquito breeding sites in homes and from communal areas.
PAHO/WHO also recommends that countries organize their health services for rapid referral of patients with symptoms of severe dengue, which requires specialized medical care.
Symptoms of dengue include high fever, headache and muscle pain. Severe forms of dengue can cause difficulties in breathing, haemorrhage and even death if patients do not receive early and appropriate treatment. Chikungunya causes high fever initially, with joint pain. Severe complications are uncommon, but older adults with chronic diseases, children and pregnant women are at risk of more serious illness. There is currently no vaccine for either disease.
Critics here have raised concerns about the authorities’ tepid fogging campaign against mosquitoes. Meanwhile dozens of cases of chikungunya-like symptoms have been reported across the country.
