PLAGUES & PESTILENCES: Escalation In Mosquito-Borne Diseases Continue - Hawaii's Governor David Ige Declares STATE OF EMERGENCY To Fight Zika Virus And Dengue Fever Outbreak!

© Jim Gathany / Reuters

February 13, 2016 - HAWAII - Hawaii has declared a state of emergency in a move to fight and prevent mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue fever and the Zika virus, which the state’s governor called a threat to public health and welfare.

“We are doing everything we can to be prepared, to be proactive, to prevent vector-borne diseases here in Hawaii,” Gov. David Ige said in a proclamation he signed Friday.

So far, Hawaii has not seen cases of the Zika virus transmission, but it is on standby following a decision by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to put emergency centers on a Level 1 alert last week.

But there is an ongoing outbreak of dengue fever at Big Island, where there were more than 250 confirmed cases. One of the major concerns now is that mosquitoes that can carry dengue fever also can carry the Zika virus, which potentially puts the island at risk.

There are also flights between American Samoa, one of the Pacific islands affected by a Zika outbreak, and Hawaii.

Tourists and locals watch the sunset from White Sands Beach Park in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, January 31, 2016. © Canice Leung / Reuters

“Hawaii Emergency Management Agency will be working with all the county mayors and the county civil defense coordinators to ensure that statewide we are ahead of the game and proactive in responding to vector-borne diseases,” the governor said.

The emergency proclamation means that Hawaii will have access to the Major Disaster Fund, granting it an option to acquire more funds to control outbreaks and waive certain laws and regulations if necessary.

"One of the things that this emergency declaration from the governor will allow us to do is that we can in fact enforce that we will come and take care of mosquitoes on a property that someone is refusing, because it is a public health emergency,” Virginia Pressler, director of the Department of Health said, AP reported.

In particular the authorities would be able to use insecticides on private property, regardless of an owner’s objection.

According to Pressler, understaffed due to financial problems, the state’s health regulator is now searching to hire more medical workers and scientists with the newly released funds from the governor.

Gov. Ige has said the state will begin to survey the community to verify the particular mosquito species and determine their locations. Then it will work out and implement plans for their “management, eradication and treatment,” he said. - Hawaii.

PLAGUES & PESTILENCES: Dengue Fever Outbreak On Hawaii's Big Island - State Of Emergency Declared!

February 9, 2016 - BIG ISLAND, HAWAII - The mayor of Hawaii's Big Island declared a state of emergency on Monday to deal with a growing outbreak of dengue fever, spread by infected mosquitoes, with 250 cases confirmed over the past four months.

As a result of Hawaii County Mayor Billy Kenoi's order people on the Big Island will be allowed to resume disposing of old tires in landfills, since tires which are left lying around are a known breeding spot for mosquitoes.

There have been 250 confirmed cases of dengue fever on the island since Oct. 29, making it the largest outbreak in the state since the 1940s, according to the mayor's declaration and Hawaii health officials.

Dengue fever causes flu-like symptoms and can develop into the deadly dengue hemorrhagic fever.

Hawaii Governor David Ige said in a statement he supported the efforts on the Big Island but would not issue a statewide emergency declaration unless the outbreak spread to other islands or expanded to include other diseases, such as the Zika virus.

Zika is spreading rapidly in South and Central America and the Caribbean and has been linked to severe birth defects in Brazil.


WATCH: Dengue Fever Press Conference.

Last month, a baby born with brain damage at a hospital in Oahu, Hawaii, was apparently the first case of the mosquito-borne Zika virus in a birth on U.S. soil, health officials said.

Dengue is not endemic to Hawaii but has occasionally spread after being imported by infected travelers. The outbreak on the Big Island is the first cluster of locally-acquired dengue fever since a 2011 outbreak on Oahu, the Hawaii Department of Health said. - Yahoo.

PLAGUES & PESTILENCES: Mass Outbreak Of Mice-Vector Hemorrhagic Fever In Argentina - Attacks In The Rural Areas, Caused By Viral Agent Junin And Transmitted By Camp Mice!

May 10, 2013 - ARGENTINA - The contagion potential of the disease covers a wide area of central Argentina: the provinces of Buenos Aires, Cordoba, La Pampa and Santa Fe, with other strains of the disease in Paraguay and Bolivia.

A 31-yeaar old farm hand died and a 12-year old adolescent has been hospitalized in the province of Santa Fe following an outbreak of Argentine hemorrhagic fever (FHA) caused by the viral agent Junin and transmitted by camp mice.
The mice which can transmit the viral disease appear in crop areas.

The death and hospitalization were confirmed by the Epidemiology Director from the city of Rosario.

The Junin virus is found in some species of camp mice that contaminate with their saliva, urine and excrement, and tend to proliferate in crop time. When harvesters chop up the four to six centimetres long brownish rodents, their blood is also potentially contaminating.

Human infection to occur through: skin contact (with abrasions, for example); in mucous or inhalation of particles carrying the virus. It is found mainly in people who reside in, or visit, or work in rural areas, 80% of those infected are men between 15 and 60.

The FHA is a serious acute illness like a common starting flu sends progressing to death in 1-2 weeks or recovery if treated early with blood plasma of ex-patients.

The virus incubation period is between 10-12 days after the first symptoms appear which confuses the unprepared practitioner in the differential diagnosis (biochemical analysis of platelets): fever, headache, weakness, reluctance, joint and eye pain and loss of appetite.

Unlike common flu where the patient improves to fifth day, with FHA symptoms intensify less than a week later forcing the infected patient to bed, producing increasingly strong symptoms of altered vascular, renal, haematological and neurological. This stage does not last more than 20 days If not treated anti-virally, FHA mortality reaches 30%. - MercoPress.