Brooke Edmonds
October, 20, 2010
7:09pm
South China city has sent out new reports that a mosquito borne disease is sickening many people in a few cities. The local health department has confirmed that the industrial city, Dongguan, in south China Guangdong Providence, has had 38 people infected by this new mosquito borne virus. Meanwhile, there are 166 people waiting for test results that were suspected of being infected with the virus. The health department states that most of the people have suffered fevers, rashes, and joint pains because of the virus. All the patients that have it are in stable condition. No deaths or severe cases have been reported. To oversee the treatment of the disease, local health authorities have set up a task force of medical experts to help patients. The mosquito borne virus is carried mostly by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. The infections have originated in tropical Africa and southeast Asia.
A disease like this is scary because if a person goes outside at all they increase their risk of being bitten by an infected mosquito. Mosquitos can land on the skin and bite, and a person wont know it until the skin starts getting irritated with a rash. Luckily, this virus is not deadly and people infected with it can get medical treatment and become well again. This type of disease does not have very many ways to prevent it, other than staying indoors because no one can stop a mosquito bite if they do not notice it happening. Hopefully this disease will die out soon and cases of it will decrease across south China.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/health/2010-10/07/c_13545590.htm
3 comments:
This mosquito business is very inconvenient. As you stated, the only option people have to not become infected would be to stay indoors, but how long would that last with most people. I'm glad that the mosquito bite is not deadly, or at least so far no one has died, but I'm sure that if not treated quickly it could be. I wondered about this when our area had the west nile mosquito disease; how exactly to they rid the area of the infected mosquito's?
This is very scary, thank goodness all the affected people are doing well. I'm glad that there is a task force in place to help people. Hopefully doctors and scientist will be able to come up with a vaccine that will be effective against the virus caused by the mosquito.
Its worrisome to think that a small insect like a mosquito can carry deadly viruses. Luckily this one is not deadly and hopefully it will be eradicated soon.
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