September 28, 1995
Web posted at: 10:30 p.m. EDT
From Correspondent Lucia Newman
JUCHITAN, Mexico (CNN) -- It's an unmistakable sign that there's been a death in the family. A traditional mourning altar, adorned with a white, flower-filled canopy, stands in the Fernandez home. Mrs. Fernandez still can't believe she'll never see her 6-year-old Celestino again.
He died suddenly two weeks ago near the small town of Juchitan, Oaxaca. So far, Celestino is the youngest victim of hemorrhagic dengue. His neighbor, a mother of six, has been luckier. Although her reddish skin reflects subcutaneous hemorrhaging, doctors say that she will recover.
An unprecedented outbreak of dengue fever is sweeping not only Mexico, but all of Central America, Venezuela and Brazil.
Dr. Pedro David Diaz, the director of the Epidemiology Department in Oaxaca, said that all clinics are in a state of alert and staff members have been given instructions on how to identify ordinary dengue and hemorrhagic dengue.
Classic dengue causes splitting headaches, body aches and high fever, but is rarely fatal. Now a much more severe form, hemorrhagic dengue, is taking hold. It causes plasma to leak from the blood vessels, which normally leads to death in 10 percent of cases. But in Mexico, the fatality rate is as high as 30 percent.
There is no known cure for dengue. Like yellow fever, it is spread by the Aedis Aegypti mosquito. It reproduces at alarming speed in and around where people live.
Although the official language is Spanish, most of people of Oaxaca speak seven dialects of several indigenous languages, making it even more difficult for many to understand that something as small as a soda bottle top can be a breeding ground for the deadly disease.
The urban mosquito lays its eggs in clean, still water, which is almost everywhere: in bottles left outdoors in the rain, in old tires and in water jugs.
Authorities say the answer to containing the disease is education, rather than fumigation, which kills only the adult mosquitoes.
The region's economic problems are also to blame for the rapid spread of the virus. "With the population movements ... people looking for work migrate with the virus to places where it previously didn't exist," said Dr. Rafael Garcia, who is with the Oaxaca Transmittable Disease Department.
All of these factors are prompting the Pan American Health Organization to warn of the threat of a worldwide epidemic.
(These sites are not necessarily endorsed by CNN Interactive.)
![[Imagemap]](/WORLD/images/world_nav.gif)
Copyright © 1995 Cable News Network, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.