Dengue spreading in Martinique

Monday, September 26, 2005 Posted: 1929 GMT (0329 HKT)

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FORT-DE-FRANCE, Martinique (AP) -- An epidemic of dengue fever has killed two people in the French Caribbean island of Martinique this month, and more than 6,000 have been infected, medical authorities said Monday.

Since mid-September, the rate of new cases has increased to almost 1,000 a week, said Jacques Rosine, a doctor at the Antilles-Guyane Inter-Regional Epidemiology Center in Martinique.

"The epidemic is not calming down. It is gaining ground," he said.

More than 60 people have been hospitalized, three of them with a severe form of the disease, which often causes internal bleeding.

The disease -- characterized by high fever, chills, headaches, aching joints, bright red rashes and prostration -- is common in tropical areas and endemic to parts of Asia and the Caribbean. There is no vaccine and the only treatment is bed rest, fluids and fever-reducing medication.

A 60-year old woman died September 10, of cerebral hemorrhage. A 30-year-old woman died September 22, of complications of an earlier illness brought on by the fever, the Martinique Health and Social Development Bureau reported.

In Guadeloupe, a French Caribbean island north of Martinique, more than 700 cases have been reported since the beginning of August. There are about 100 new cases every week now, said the Health Surveillance Institute, a government epidemiology center.

To prevent the disease from spreading, authorities have intensified their campaign to eradicate stagnant water, Rosine said.

Dengue fever comes from a virus carried by the striped Aedes aegypti mosquito, which breeds in puddles and such water-filled containers as flowerpots and old automobile tires. The incubation period is usually five to eight days.

The World Health Organization estimates that nearly 100 million people worldwide are infected with dengue each year, with a death rate of about 5 percent.