Chikungunya & Dengue

I have some doubts regarding the statement about 30,000 cases of Chikungunya.

According to the linked article is seems that only serological diagnosis can differentiate the two viruses. Doubt that analysis was done on 30,000 people in Zihuatanejo. Who would have done it and who would have paid for it?

Regardless, it was probably some of each and traveler should be aware and know what to do for prevention. Traveling at peak mosquito seasons may not be such a good idea either.

Tess could you also name the publications and dates of the publications you read or at least post a source. Thank you.

Please read,

As Tess and I both already alluded to, most cases of either disease go unreported and thus officially undiagnosed, and the government has already been caught fudging the numbers. Locals who have had Dengue at least once (most all of us) don't need a diagnosis to tell us the difference between Chikungunya and Dengue. Most every family we know has at least one member who has had Chikungunya this year. It killed my neighbor's father when the virus was still making its first round here in Zihuatanejo.

The Secretaría de Salud of Guerrero's state government has been severely compromised by corruption since the administration of Zeferino Torreblanca, and when the interim governor took over after Ángel Aguirre was forced to resign, the first thing he did was fire about 500 workers and cut way back on the programs to combat Chikungunya and Dengue. Unfortunately the state simply has no money.

The state has rehired some of the people it previously fired, mainly the folks who fumigate, although here in downtown Zihuatanejo I have not seen any fumigators since the beginning of July. In contrast, in Ixtapa's residential and hotel areas there has been a continuous fumigation program except in the 6,000 units of Casas Geo located behind (inland from) Ixtapa.

I agree 30,000 is most likely an exaggerated number, but the number is certainly in the several thousands, not in the hundreds as state officials have claimed. The people who remain the most affected in our municipio are generally the lesser educated who occupy marginalized neighborhoods. The best the government can do at present is to carry out information campaigns so that folks remove standing water from objects on their properties. If it rained the flow of water would help to reduce the areas of standing water and thus the incidences of Dengue and Chikungunya, but we are essentially suffering a period of extreme shortage of rains. There are actually less mosquitoes present when we have our daily afternoon rains, but our normal weather pattern has been disrupted this year by the unusually prolonged presence of El Niño owing to causes that you already denied exist.