United States: The number of dengue fever reported across the Americas has skyrocketed to over 12.6 Million this year with around 21,000 severe cases and over 7700 deaths, as per the Pan American Health Organization on Tuesday.
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This year’s dengue epidemic, which although is a commonly seen mosquito-borne disease in the world altogether, has shown the largest number of cases since 1980, said the PAHO, which is also calling for enhanced prevention measures.
Among the most affected are Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico: four countries in Latin America make up 90 percent of cases and 88 percent of deaths, according to PAHO.
Furthermore, the effect on children is the highest level, and they are more vulnerable to dengue and the worst consequences of the virus.
Here in Guatemala, children under 15 years account for 70 percent of this year’s dengue death toll, while more than a third of the severe cases are persons under 15 in Mexico, Costa Rica, and Paraguay, according to the PAHO, Reuters reported.
What does the WHO state?
The World Health America organization, which falls under the United Nations, established that climate occurrences across the region had created conditions of high mosquito reproduction.
The organization also pointed out that water accumulation and poor waste management ensure the reproduction of the insect, the breeder of dengue, Reuters reported.
Currently, about 4 billion people, or roughly 50 percent of the global population, are at risk of dengue infection, as per the CDC.
That is why the symptoms of dengue usually appear 4 to 10 days after the infection, and the disease persists for 2 to 7 days.
They may include high fever, severe or throbbing head, pain in the back of the eye, muscle/joint pains, sickness, vomiting, swollen glands, and itchy rash.
Some of the symptoms include sharp abdominal pains, unrelenting vomiting, racing breath, gum or nose bleeding, constant feeling of tiredness, or sometimes restlessness after you have recovered from a fever.
This means that the second time a person gets infected with the dengue virus, they are most likely to suffer severe dengue. The symptoms of severe dengue may develop after the fever has subsided.