Health Says It May Have No Money to Fight Dengue
The rainy season will be here soon and so will the Dengue season. This year, the Ministerio de Salud (Ministry of Health) says that the Ministerio de Hacienda (Finance) have some ¢2 billion colones (us$3.9 million dollars) frozen that would leave them with no money to fight the disease.

According to health officials, the money would be also be used to cover the costs of research and prevention.

Healthy Ministry officials say that this could be a serious problem and place the public at risk while it has its hands tied.

Dengue fever is a viral infection that's found in 100 countries and causes half-a-million hospitalizations and thousands of deaths each year.

Dengue has been causing fever, chills, and skeletal pain for many years. After World War II, a more serious form of the disease - dengue hemorrhagic fever - emerged in Southeast Asia, where it became one of the leading causes among morbidity and mortality in children.

Ominously, in the past decade or so, dengue hemorrhagic emerged in Latin America, reaching as far north as the Texas border. What is happening now in Central and South America mirrors what happened in Southeast Asia.

There is no specific cure for either form of dengue, nor is a vaccine available.