Health officials in Jalisco warn that cases of dengue and chikungunya could increase by as much as 50% with the passing of Hurricane Patricia.
“The hurricane has given us the conditions that could increase the number of dengue and chikungunya cases by 50%,” said Director of Public Health of Jalisco, Hector Ramirez Cordero, who alerted “We cannot lower our guard, prevention of communicable diseases now becomes the difficult task.”
He said “we are organizing ourselves to go out with dengue prevention brigades. We will visit house to house, neighborhood to neighborhood.”
Prevention of these diseases include removing any standing water, resolving flood issues, and pesticides.
Another health issue that concerns the state is gastrointestinal illness in the communities affected by the hurricane.
“We have to consider the damage to health in terms of intestinal diseases, we have to take care of the food handling and consumption. Prevention, the basic is hand washing and boiled water before consumption to avoid getting sick in the stomach,” he advised.
