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 Health & Beauty | September 2007 
Mosquito Born Diseases Threaten US-Mexico Border
 Frontera NorteSur
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 |  | The mosquito that transmits dengue normally proliferates in the southeast of the country, but it has managed to adapt itself locally, thanks to humid conditions generated by climate change.
- Alvaro Valenzuela Grajeda |  | |
Once again, mosquito born diseases are worrying health authorities on both sides of the Mexico-US border. In Mexico’s northeastern border state of Tamaulipas, the Ministry of Interior declared an emergency in the municipalities of Tampico, Altamira, Ciudad Madero, El Mante, and Gonzalez after heavy rains caused flooding this month. Hot weather, coupled with stagnant pools of water that characterize the region’s underdeveloped communities, creates ideal breeding conditions for the Aedes aegyptus variety of mosquito, the transmitter of dengue fever.
"It will be a difficult situation," admitted state health official Fernando Garza Frausto. Insecticide sprayers in hand, government personnel fumigated sections of Tamaulipas, but some residents expressed skepticism that the eradication program would work.
By mid-September, the Tamaulipas State Health Ministry had tallied 400 confirmed cases of dengue and counted several hundred other suspected cases. State officials reported that hemorrhagic dengue, which is the most potentially fatal strain of the disease, constituted 80 of the diagnosed cases, while classic dengue made up 330 of the detected cases. The authorities were most concerned about a possible dengue epidemic in the flood-ravaged southern portion of the state, but some cases were detected in the cities of Reynosa and Nuevo Laredo that border the US.
Dengue is on the rise in Mexico. Pablo Kuri Morales, general director of the National Center for Epidemiological Monitoring and Disease Control, predicted that dengue cases in 2007 will be 40 percent above 2006's figure. Kuri estimated that the total number of Mexican dengue cases could reach 28,000 this year.
In Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexican health authorities and researchers from the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juarez have trapped the feared Aedes aegyptus mosquito but haven't found any specimens that tested positive for dengue.
"The mosquito that transmits dengue normally proliferates in the southeast of the country," said Alvaro Valenzuela Grajeda, state health district sub-director, "but it has managed to adapt itself locally, thanks to humid conditions generated by climate change."
In the Paso del Norte region of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, El Paso, Texas and southern New Mexico, mosquitoes of the Culex quinque-fasciatus variety that transmit the West Nile Virus have been the primary concern for the past several years. While West Nile Virus cases in the entire state of New Mexico fell from 209 (including four fatalities) in 2003 to 8 in 2006, the illness is on the increase again in 2007. A high proportion of mosquitoes trapped in southern New Mexico's Dona Ana County have tested positive for West Nile Virus. At least 27 human cases, two of which were fatal, were reported in New Mexico through the first twelve days of September. A dozen horses have also been infected with West Nile Virus in New Mexico.
In Texas' El Paso County, health authorities have logged 30 cases of the virus, including three fatal ones, during 2007. In Ciudad Juarez, meanwhile, health officials identified the sprawling Anapra colonia on the New Mexico border, the Satelite neighborhood, and the Juarez Valley south of the city as areas particularly vulnerable to West Nile Virus outbreaks. While July and August are considered the peak months of activity, health officials and providers on both sides of the border are staying vigilant throughout the remaining days of warm weather.
"This alert is going to continue so we can avoid the infection of more people," said Hector Puertas Rincon, Ciudad Juarez health district director.
Sources: El Paso Times, September 18, 2007. Article by Louie Gilot. Enlineadirecta.info, September 16, 2007. Article by Leobardo Sanchez. La Jornada, September 15, 2007. Article by Andres T. Morales and correspondents. El Diario de Juarez, September 9 and 16, 2007. Norte, September 1, 2007. Article by Herika Martinez Prado. Associated Press, September 1, 2007. Health.state.nm.us/
Frontera NorteSur (FNS)
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico
http://frontera.nmsu.edu/) |
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