Venezuela in grip of severe tropical disease outbreak

This is the year of the virus, that's for sure but what hass me concerned is the question of if this is an isolated happening this year or if this is the new norm as things get warmer. It's not being talked about on the news so it's perfect to talk about on ATS.

In 2014, Venezuela had over 150,000 recorded cases of dengue, malaria, and Chikungunya, the report said.

The country also had 1.2 million fever episodes without a precise diagnoses, according to the report by the Health Observatory and another group called We Defend the Epidemiology of Venezuelan Society.

The epidemic is one of the worst in 25 years, said former health minister Jose Felix Oletta, who was among the authors of the report.

"And we're still in the expansion phase, this problem will continue," Oletta told AFP.

What says ATS? The year of the virus or the new norm for years to come?

news.yahoo.com...

a reply to: lostbook

I says that Venezuela is a basket case with no working health care system to speak of because it has functionally been destroyed by Hugo Chaves and now Maduro's mismanagement. The government down there is just a few steps away from collapse. So there might as well not be any working medical system for a lot of people.

Of course that's going to lead to an increase of disease.

a reply to: ketsuko

The increase in the disease is from mosquito populations. If the season was wetter than usual and warner then mosquitos there would breed more and increase their numbers.

Those diseases can be carried in animals as well as humans but the diseases are spread from mosquito to person or animal. The report says there is increase in cases so even if they had the best medical facilities on earth it wouldn't change how many people get infected. Try to remember there are no vaccines for Dengue, malaria, and Chikungunya. All any medical facility can do is take care of those who become infected.

The only way to stop the spread of those diseases is to lower the mosquito population. That isn't a job for the health care system.

Higher rains and temperatures are not controlled by their government. The best they can try to do is spray the surrounding areas on a regular basis but try to remember the landscape of that country.

a reply to: Grimpachi

Do you live in a tropical country?

I it's the work of the work of the government to do fumigation in order to control mosquito proliferation.

It's the work of the government to have the medicines and capabilities to treat the sick (in Venezuela health care is supposed to be free).

Due to Maduro failure there is a shortage of acetaminophen, you die of high fever now in the country, and it's not an act of nature the lack of it.

a reply to: lostbook

Many of these viral outbreaks happen every year. China, Malaysia and India are currently struggling thru a worse-outbreak-than-normal of their seasonal Dengue Fever.

www.cnn.com...
(Oct.2014) ASIA SEES SPIKE IN DENGUE FEVER
"Southern China is suffering from its worst outbreak of dengue fever in two decades, with 1,000 new cases of the potentially fatal mosquito-borne disease emerging each day, according to official media reports.

"Local health authorities in China warned the situation was "severe," with six deaths and 21,527 infections recorded in Guangdong province in southern China by Sunday.

"Elsewhere in Asia, Malaysia and Taiwan have reported more cases and deaths in 2014 than in previous years, and Japan has seen more than 150 infections in its first outbreak of the tropical disease since 1945, according to news agency Kyodo."

(As I said, these are seasonal outbreaks - just as Ebola rears its ugly head in Africa every few years. These are viruses that mutate back and forth, from lethal to harmless and back again, and are indigenous to certain regions of the world. Global travelers need to be aware of these outbreaks, but they are of minimal to non-existent danger to the average American.

(And I don't believe in "global warming" - Antarctica just had the largest ice pack in recent history.)