This is Bill White with the VOA Special English DevelopmentReport.
The World Health Organization says dengue (DEN-gay) fever isincreasing in parts of Latin America and Southeast Asia. Healthofficials say the disease continues to be a major public healthconcern in countries with hot climates. People suffer from thedisease in more than one-hundred nations in Africa, the Americas,the eastern Mediterranean, Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific.
Mosquito insects spread the denguevirus when they feed on the blood of an infected person. The diseasespreads quickly in big cities where living conditions are not clean.Mosquitoes lay their eggs in water storage areas or where bodilywaste is collected. The W-H-O says better waste removal and waterstorage systems could stop mosquitoes from reproducing in thoseplaces.
There are four different forms of the dengue virus. Because ofthis, no drug has been developed to fully prevent the disease.However, researchers believe a medical vaccine may be developed inseveral years.
The last major increase in dengue fever was reported innineteen-ninety-eight. The World Health Organization says more thanone-million cases were reported that year. Health officials say thiswas a record number. However, they suspect that more thanfifty-million people are infected with the disease around the worldeach year. The W-H-O estimates that about forty percent of theworld’s population is at risk of getting dengue fever.
The disease affects babies, children and young adults. A personwith dengue fever has a high body temperature and severe pain in thehead, muscles and bones. People infected with the disease do notusually die. However, the most serious form of the disease is denguehemorrhagic fever. It kills about five percent of victims. Most ofthem are very young. Signs of this form of the disease includebleeding inside the body.
The only method to control or prevent dengue fever is to killmosquitoes carrying the disease. Most countries already usechemicals to kill mosquitoes. However, health problems develop whencountries stop controlling mosquitoes when the number of cases ofthe disease is low. The W-H-O says the spread of dengue fever couldbe reduced if mosquito control programs were carried out all thetime.
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by JillMoss. This is Bill White.