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Guatemalan gov’t reports 25 deaths for dengue

08 September 2010 04:31 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The Guatemalan Health Ministry said on Tuesday that 25 people in the country died of dengue this year, APA reports quoting news.xinhuanet.com website.

There have been 11,800 possible cases reported, of which 1,925 were confirmed and 123 were serious cases, the Ministry said in a statement.

According to the coordinator of the National Program of Vectors, Arturo Sanchez, the most affected areas were Escuintla in the south; Jutiapa, Chiquimula and Izabal in the east; Baja Verapaz and Guatemala in the center.

"During the rain season there were cases of this disease because the stagnated water is the nursery of the dengue carrier mosquito Aedes Aegypti, which has lost its seasonality," Sanchez said.

Now the dengue, compared with other years, is present during all the year, because the mosquito has been adapted to different temperatures, altitudes and environments, Sanchez said.

Meanwhile, the Health Public and Social Assistance Ministry have carried out actions to prevent the spread of this mosquito by fumigating from 5:00 am to 7:00 a.m. local time and from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. local time in areas where there are possible or confirmed dengue cases.

The Public Health Ministry’s National Center of Epidemiology said that with these measures they have been able to reduce 41 percent the possibility of being infected with dengue.