Dengue fever

I arrived back in Paraguay at the end of January to find the country in the middle of an epidemic of dengue fever, which is a disease carried by mosquitoes. There has been a lot of rain recently, which has led to an increase in pools of standing water in gardens and gutters all around. The mosquitoes have taken advantage of these new breeding grounds and are multiplying like crazy! The symptoms start a few days after being bitten, and include aches and high fever, which can last as long as 10 days. The official figure is 8,000 cases since the beginning of January, but everyone knows several people who have had it, so some people think the real figure may be as high as 30,000. There is no vaccine and, if you've had it before, you can get the more severe haemorrhagic version, which can kill you. Five people have died so far.

It is a real problem in a country where people only get paid for the work they do; sick pay is very rare. And, of course, when there are so many ill, it gets hard to find cover and so those who are not ill are working twice as hard. Estela, the director of FEISA, had dengue fever just before the new school year started in February. Marina, one of the teachers, has it at the moment.

The authorities are trying to control the spread of the disease by encouraging everyone to empty out any standing water they have around their house and yard (the photo is of a banner in the street emphasising everyone's responsibility to help). There have also been teams out spraying insecticide in the worst-affected areas. However, their efforts have been criticised as being ineffective and ill-organised.