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Puerto Rico: Dengue Surveillance Update

 

 

Note:  I’ll be away from my desk for most of the day, but plan to be back blogging either tonight or Sunday morning. 

As always, check with Crof, Arkanoid Legent, and Chen Qi for the latest news, and keep an eye on my sidebar for blog updates.

 


# 4970

 

 

I haven’t updated the Dengue situation in  Puerto Rico for a couple of weeks because (as of this writing) I hadn’t been able to find an update to the CDC’s  Weekly Dengue Surveillance Report since September 24th (week 35).

 

A little digging, however, and I was able to find the latest data from the Puerto Rico Department of Health (PRDH) Dengue website, albeit in Spanish.

 

 

For Weeks 36 & 37, the number of new Dengue cases remained about the same as we saw in week 35 – and continues to run several times higher than the epidemic threshold.

 

image

(Click image to load report)

 

The year-to-date totals (15,112 suspected cases, 26 fatalities) exceeds the numbers recorded during the last big outbreak in 1998 when roughly 10,500 people were reportedly infected.

 

 

In July the CDC’s  MMWR came out with a field report on the Dengue situation in Puerto Rico, which you can read about at MMWR: Dengue Epidemic In Puerto Rico.

 

The CDC  also issued a Health Advisory via their HAN (Health Alert Network) primarily to inform health care providers of the possibility of seeing Dengue Fever in returning visitors from areas where the virus is being seen.

 

This is an official
CDC HEALTH ADVISORY

Distributed via Health Alert Network
Sunday, July 25, 2010, 22:35 EDT (10:35 PM EDT)
CDCHAN-00315-2010-07-25-ADV-N

Increased Potential for Dengue Infection in Travelers Returning from International and Selected Domestic Areas

 

When placed into perspective – there are about 4 million residents and another 4 million annual visitors to Puerto Rico – 15,000 infections is a very small percentage of that total.

 

The odds of contracting the virus are actually pretty low.   But they are not zero.

 

So it makes sense to take reasonable precautions whenever you are around mosquitoes (and not just in Puerto Rico).

 

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