Dengue Fever Bites Latin America
Transmitted by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, dengue fever is creating epidemics in several Latin American countries and has regional health authorities on edge.

Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Panama are suffering the disease, which produces high fever, headaches, and pain in muscles and joints.

The hemorrhagic variety is the most dangerous because it may cause death, and has already killed 13 in Paraguay, where the Public Health Minister has received strong criticism.

There have been 20,000 cases in the course of the year, but a poll by a consulting firm places it at 400,000.

Asuncion Governor Francisco Franco said 20 percent of a total of 1.6 million people living in the Central Department of Asuncion contracted the disease from January to March 2007.

In Uruguay, the authorities confirmed the first autochthonous case, and the emergency committee of Salto, 308 miles north of Montevideo, is carrying out a fumigation campaign to arrest the disease.

The Chilean Public Health Institute verified the appearance of five new cases at the island of Pascua, to join to the other three cases in February.

In Brazil, investigators from the Oswaldo Cruz Institute said lab tests results concluded the Aedes Aegypti mosquito is the possible transmitter of the viral infection in their territory.