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	va1-sg19016.securesites.net

	version=3.1.8



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[1] China (Fujian)

[2] Viet Nam

[3] Pakistan (Karachi)

[4] Latin America



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[1] China (Fujian)





On Sunday [30 Sep 2007], health authorities said 39 dengue fever 

cases have been confirmed in Putian City of east China's Fujian 

Province. Thus far, 26 of the 39 patients in Hanjiang District of 

Putian City have been cured and the others are in stable condition, 

said the provincial health department.



The city has adopted "comprehensive prevention and control measures" 

to curb the spread of the disease, said the department. All medical 

and health institutions in the province have also strengthened 

monitoring on the disease, it added.



The department reminded citizens of household sanitation and the 

prevention of proliferation of mosquitoes, which transmit the disease [virus].



--



[Putian City is situated in the central part of the coastal area of 

Fujian Province. Putian neighbors Fuzhou in the northeast and 

Quanzhou in the southeast, and is separated from Taiwan by the Taiwan Strait.



[A zoomable map of Fujian Province showing the location of Putian 

city can be accessed at 



******

[2] Viet Nam





The incidence of dengue fever in Viet Nam has risen by almost 50 

percent this year [2007] against last year [2006], reports the Health Ministry.



A medical worker instructs Dao ethnic minorities in the northern 

mountainous province of Yen Bai's Quang Minh Commune to dip mosquito 

nets in chemicals to prevent dengue fever.



About 68 000 people had been stricken with the mosquito-borne 

disease, Preventative Health Department director Nguyen Huy Nga said 

on Monday [24 Sep 2007]; 60 had died.



Most infections had occurred in southern Dong Thap, An Giang, Tien 

Giang, and Ben Tre provinces and the total increase was about 48 

percent, he said.



Ho Chi Minh [HCM] City-based Pasteur Institute National Dengue Fever 

Programme representative Luong Chan Quang said more than 58 000 

people had been infected in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta provinces by 

the end of August [2007]. Deaths were put at 54-40 percent more than 

last year [2006].



Infections in Tien Giang Province totalled 9800 with 9 deaths, Dong 

Thap 8700 with 9 deaths, and An Giang 6000 with 6 deaths.



In HCM City, almost 5400 people had been stricken with dengue fever 

-- 40 percent more than last year [2006 -- and 6 had died.



Quang warned that another serious outbreak was likely in the southern 

delta before the end of the year [2007] if effective preventive 

measures were not taken because people regularly stored water to 

prepare for the dry season.



The _Aedes_ mosquito, which carries dengue fever, breeds in still or 

stagnant water.



HCM City Preventive Health Department deputy director Nguyen Dac Tho 

said about 350 people were being admitted to hospital each week with 

dengue fever -- 50 more than last year [2006].



Inner city districts 8, 10, 11, Binh Thanh, and Binh Tan were the 

worst affected. People in densely populated precincts stored more 

water for their own use than others as did construction projects, said Dr Tho.



Dengue fever is most common among children under 10 but the number of 

afflicted adults has increased this year [2007].



HCM City Tropical Diseases Hospital figures show that of about 150 

people admitted to the hospital with dengue fever each week, more 

than 100 were adults.



There are 4 types of the dengue fever virus that often result in 

similar symptoms. This year [2007], the transmitted virus was usually 

type 1 or type 2.



Haemorrhagic fever is a severe, often fatal, complication of dengue fever.



The HCM City People's Committee has mobilised measures to prevent 

dengue fever across the city. Citizens are encouraged to clean around 

their residences every Sunday and spray mosquito killer [insecticides].



--



[A map of Viet Nam can be accessed at 

- Mod.TY]



******

[3] Pakistan (Karachi)





The Sindh Health Department's Dengue Fever Surveillance Cell reported 

22 fresh cases of the disease in select hospitals across Karachi on 

Wednesday [26 Sep 2007].



Additional health secretary and in-charge of the surveillance cell, 

Dr Shakil Malik, giving details of these cases, told APP [Associated 

Press of Pakistan] that 20 of the patients are positive and they are 

waiting for the report on the other 2.



The hospitals that dispatched reports include Liaquat National 

Hospital, Ziauddin Hospital, Bismillah Taqee Hospital, and Zainab 

Panjwani Hospital. "Since we just reactivated the cell on Tuesday [25 

Sep 2007], it will take time before we make contact with all the 

hospitals scattered across the city," he said. To a question, he said 

that around 170 suspected cases of dengue fever have been reported 

also referred to the report the provincial health department received 

from a local laboratory (Mid Citi Lab) that tested 24 OPD [out 

patient department] patients between August [2007] and now. Of these 

individuals, 12 came out positive.



--



[Karachi is located on the Arabian Sea. A map of Pakistan can be 

accessed at 

- Mod.TY]



******

[4] Latin America





Dengue fever is spreading across Latin America and the Caribbean in 

one of the worst outbreaks in decades, causing agonizing joint pain 

for hundreds of thousands of people and killing nearly 200 so far 

this year [2007].



The mosquitoes that carry dengue are thriving in expanded urban slums 

scattered with water-collecting trash and old tires. Experts say 

dengue is approaching record levels this year [2007] as many 

countries enter their wettest months.



"If we do not slow it down, it will intensify and take a greater 

social and economic toll on these countries," said Dr. Jose Luis San 

Martin, head of anti-dengue efforts for the Pan American Health 

Organization (PAHO), a regional public health agency.



The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta 

has posted advisories this year [2007] for people visiting Latin 

American and Caribbean destinations to use mosquito repellant and 

stay inside screened areas whenever possible.



"The danger is that the doctors at home don't recognize the dengue," 

said Dr. Wellington Sun, the chief of the CDC's dengue branch in San 

Juan, [Puerto Rico] "The doctors need to raise their level of 

suspicion for any traveler who returns with a fever."



Dengue has already damaged the economies of countries across the 

region by driving away tourists, according to a document prepared for 

a PAHO conference beginning Monday [1 Oct 2007] in Washington.



Some countries have focused mosquito eradication efforts on areas 

popular with tourists. Mexico sent hundreds of workers to the resorts 

of Puerto Vallarta, Cancun, and Acapulco this year [2007] to try to 

avert outbreaks.



Health ministers from across the region meet at the PAHO conference 

and San Martin said he will urge them to devote more resources to dengue fever.



The tropical virus was once thought to have been nearly eliminated 

from Latin America, but it has steadily gained strength since the 

early 1980s. Now, officials fear it could emerge as a pandemic 

similar to one that became a leading killer of children in Southeast 

Asia following World War II.



Officials say the virus is likely to grow deadlier in part because 

tourism and migration are circulating 4 different strains across the 

region. A person exposed to one strain may develop immunity to that 

strain -- but subsequent exposure to another strain makes it more 

likely the person will develop the hemorrhagic form.



"The main concern is what's happening in the Americas will 

recapitulate what has happened in Southeast Asia, and we will start 

seeing more and more severe types of cases of dengue as time 

progresses," Sun said.



So far this year [2007], 630 356 dengue cases have been reported in 

the Americas -- most in Brazil, Venezuela, or Colombia -- with 12 147 

cases of hemorrhagic fever and 183 deaths, according to the Pan 

American Health Organization. With the spread expected to accelerate 

during the upcoming rainy season in many countries, cases this year 

[2007] could exceed the 1 015 000 reported in 2002, according to San Martin.



In Puerto Rico, where 5592 suspected cases and 3 deaths have been 

reported, some lawmakers called this week for the health secretary to resign.



In the Dominican Republic, which has reported 25 deaths this year 

[2007], the health department announced Thursday [27 Sep 2007] that 

it would train 2.5 million public school students to encourage 

parents and neighbors to eliminate standing water.



Researchers have not yet developed a vaccine against dengue and Sun 

said that for now, the only way to stop the virus is to contain the 

mosquito population -- a task that relies of countless, relentless 

individual efforts including installing screen doors and making sure 

mosquitoes are not breeding in garbage.



"It's like telling people to stop smoking," he said. "They may do it 

for a while, but they don't do it on a consistent basis and without 

doing that, it's not effective."



While dengue is increasing around the developing world, the problem 

is most dramatic in the Americas, according to the CDC.



Health officials believe the resurgence of the malaria-like illness 

is due partly to a premature easing of eradication programs in the 1970s.



Migration and tourism also have carried new strains of the virus 

across national borders, even into the United States, which had 

largely wiped out the disease after a 1922 outbreak that infected a 

half-million people.



Mexico has been struggling with an alarming increase in the deadly 

hemorrhagic form of dengue, which now accounts for roughly one in 4 

cases. The government has confirmed 3249 cases of hemorrhagic dengue 

for the year through 15 Sep [2007], up from 1924 last year [2006].



The CDC says there is no drug to treat hemorrhagic dengue, but proper 

treatment, including rest, fluids, and pain relief, can reduce death 

rates to about one percent.



San Martin said he use the meetings starting Monday [1 Oct 2007] to 

urge enforcement of trash disposal regulations, more investment in 

mosquito control and new incentives for communities to participate. 

"It is a battle of every government, every community and every 

individual," he said.





--



The WHO (World Health Organisation) description of dengue fever and 

the more deadly dengue hemorrhagic fever [DHF] can be found in 

reports also. - Mod.TY]



...................................ty/mj/mpp