MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Dengue epidemic in Bolivia; worst outbreak in 22 years

Landlocked Bolivia has declared a health emergency as a dengue fever epidemic spreads across much of the country. Health officials say it is the worst outbreak in 22 years and at least three people are known to have died from the disease.

The government has allocated funds to supply hospitals and step up fumigation, but doctors say this only scratches the surface of necessary measures and accuse authorities of being slow to take action. Neighbouring northern Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil are suffering from similar outbreaks but so far not to the extent suffered by Bolivia. In Bolivia because of stretched-thin medical resources doctors have had to turn away many patients who are not yet in critical condition. The classic form of dengue fever, which is spread by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, is especially dangerous for young children and vulnerable population. According to DENCO, a group of Asian and Latin American medical professionals who provide advice on how to manage dengue, the unrestrained growth of cities like Santa Cruz, with virtually no parallel services infrastructure only serves to promote the disease. "That allows the aedes mosquito, which likes to live among humans, to thrive and breed and multiply in this kind of environment" said Lucy Lam from Denco. A variant of the disease called dengue hemorrhagic fever, which as the name indicates, causes haemorrhaging and can be fatal, has also been detected in Bolivia. "They don't die from the haemorrhaging itself, but from the loss of liquids in the body. The 10% mortality rate is usually the result of not getting medical attention on time" said Dr. Carlos Martinez from the Santa Cruz paediatric hospital. The Aedes Aegypti mosquito larvae thrive particularly in stagnant water which is very common in tropical areas during the rainy season, as is the cases in the heartland of South America. The life cycle from egg to adult mosquito is about a week.