 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Fátima Garrido, MD, Epidemiology, Venezuelan Ministry of Health, Instituto de Altos Estudios en Salud Publica, Avenida Bermudez, Maracay, Venezuela, Carolina A. Alvarez-Garriga, MD, SCP, Deparment of Epidemiology, University of North Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health, 3500 Camp Bowie Boulevard, Fort Worth, TX 76107-2699, Marco Marruffo, MD, MS, Department of Epidemiology, University of North Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health, 3500 Camp Bowie Blvd., Fort Worth, TX 76107, 817-735-0593, mmarruffo@hsc.unt.edu, Federico Montealegre, DVM, MS, PhD, Asthma Research Program, Ponce School of Medicine, P.O. Box 7004, Ponce, PR 00732, Erick Leonardo Suarez-Perez, MS, PhD, School of Public Health, University of Puerto Rico, Recinto de Ciencias Medicas, Rio Piedras, San Juan, PR 00936-5067, Gustavo Saldias, MPH, Area Health Education Center, Nova Southeastern University, 3200 S. University Drive, Suite 1588, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33328, Manuel Bayona, MD, PhD, Department of Epidemiology, University of North Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health, 3500 Camp Bowie Blvd., Fort Worth, TX 76107, and Celia Riera, MD, MPH, Panamerican Health Organization, Caracas-Venezuela, 6722, Oficina Sanitaria Panamericana, Caracas, 1010, Venezuela.
Dengue fever is a viral disease that could be lethal. Aedes spp. mosquitoes that can easily breed in many domestic and peridomestic water collection recipients transmit the virus from person to person. This makes vector control very difficult. A “community-based case-control epidemiologic study” was conducted to study the association of Dengue Fever with selected risk factors in 792 participants from 168 households randomly selected from a Sanitary District of Caracas, Venezuela. A questionnaire and a blood sample were obtained from each participant. The Indirect Hemoagglutination test (IgG dengue virus specific) was used for the diagnosis. Data was analyzed by assessing the prevalence by age, gender, and geographic area. Risk factors were evaluated by comparing seropositive “cases” with seronegative individuals (controls) regarding the presence of selected variables. The crude and logistic regression adjusted odds ratios were used as measures of association. A total of 487 participants were female (61%). The median age was 18 years. The seroprevalence was as high as 84 per 100 individuals and increased significantly with age. No important difference was found between genders. Aging, low periodicity on the water supply service, and outdoor garbage storage were important risk factors. Outdoor garbage storage creates water collections that become vector’s breeding sites. Lack of adequate water supply forces people to store water that in turn serves as a vector’s breeding site. Improvement of public services is urgent to control dengue fever in Caracas, Venezuela where prevalence is much higher than in most endemic areas of the world.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Emerging Diseases, Epidemiology
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.