Job Discussion Forums

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

Someone posted this in the Costa Rica forum, but it references Mexico

http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=56533

The CDC is saying that dengue is on the rise throughout Latin America, and that Mexico in particular is struggling with the hemorrhagic version.

Dragonlady · Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2007 8:59 pm Post subject:

deleted

info out of date

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

MELEE · Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2007 2:30 pm Post subject:

There have been four reported cases in our town (1600 meters above sea level) so far this year, probably many unreported cases. There is a campaign to go around collecting junk where water could pool from people's yards, which many people actually collect bigger garbage all year for because you don't have to pay to throw stuff out under this campaign.

We have screens on our windows and sleep under a mosquito net. I'm also trying to get a hold of some neem trees to plant in our developments park. Neem is a tree from India that actually REPELLS mosquitos--if anyone knows how I can get one, please let me know.

hlamb · Joined: 09 Dec 2003 Posts: 431 Location: Canada

There was a story on the local tv station recently about dengue in rural areas around Cuernavaca. They don't seem to think it's a problem in the city, at least not now, but they are trying to get rid of standing water in the rural parts of the state.

Elise9 · Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 32 Location: Celaya, GTO

My mom and dad came from Canada to meet me in Vallarta at the beginning of August, and despite using all mosquito bite prevention we could, my mom contracted Dengue! The syptoms didn't show up until she was back in Canada, so she had her local health care to help her, but she had a hard time recovering from it.
She's fine now; back to normal thank goodness.

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

How long did it take her to recover?

Elise9 · Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 32 Location: Celaya, GTO

to recover to functional and eating normally again, about two weeks. But it was four weeks or so before she had her energy back, and could taste food again. She said that it was hard to want to eat again when nothing tasted right.

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

Here's a dengue distribution map. Didn't know you could find it right up to the US border along the coasts. Only the high desert and the central mountain areas are free.

Whoops, I guess image posting is out along with the PMing.

GueroPaz · Joined: 07 Sep 2007 Posts: 216 Location: Thailand or Mexico

Here in Thailand, we have lots of dengue, and the hemorrhagic form is very life threatening. I knew a foreigner who got it bad, and the next thing I knew, he was dead. Not sure if the dengue killed him, but I suspect so.

DragonLady, I didn't think Comitan was that high, not like San Cristobal. Did the health officer define high altitude? I know malaria is endemic in the coast of Chiapas.

Samantha · Joined: 25 Oct 2003 Posts: 2038 Location: Mexican Riviera

Dengue is always a problem in my area of Mexico. It's not a pleasant thing to contract. My mother-in-law was stricken with the most dangerous version about 2 years ago, and was in emergency care for several days. Mosquitos are particularly bad this year as we've had lots of rain. We are using loads of repellent.

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

The last year that I was teaching in Huatulco, about 10 (out of less than 1000 total) teachers and students in the university caught dengue. If you think about it, that's more than 1% of the local population. Most people ended up being laid low for between one and two weeks.

john_n_carolina · Joined: 26 Feb 2006 Posts: 700 Location: n. carolina

....that's not an accurate example...there could have been 200 more in your city that you didn't know about....that were not in the university...

that would make it 210 cases for your city....

the distribution map by Guy is the most accurate example

you have to take the "general population" when using statistics...

Samantha · Joined: 25 Oct 2003 Posts: 2038 Location: Mexican Riviera

Oh really? Maybe I missed something but I didn't see any statistics on that map.

GueroPaz · Joined: 07 Sep 2007 Posts: 216 Location: Thailand or Mexico

I didn't see any stats on that map, either. Three basic colors: pink for the Aegyptian mosquito, dark maroon for that insect plus dengue (right to the borders of Texas and Calif.), and yellow for no infestations (the highlands). That left marron for all of Chiapas, all the lowlands, and all of Central America and northern S. America.