Posibilidades de combatir las fiebres hemorrágicas en la América Latina

Abstract

South American hemorrhagic fever viruses most certainly appear to be rodent-associated; any current effort to prevent human infection, therefore, should be directed at interrupting the transmission of virus, directly or indirectly, from rodents to humans. It is unlikely that any single means of rodent control would be effective in all situations

Several approaches to rodent control are possible and methods need to be tailored to each local situation, but only after determining what the host-reservoir is, and the mode of virus transmission. Differences in human activities can be most striking among South American communities. In Bolivia, for example, the populations which are at risk live in areas in which there are no roads and travel is chiefly by oxcart trail or riverboat. Thus, most residents of north-eastern Bolivia never leave the province in which they were born, and there is little population movement over distances greater than 50 miles. In cotrast, the epidemic area of Argentina is laced with highways and railroads; a great deal of farm work is done by migratory labor and it is likely that large numbers of new susceptibles are fed into the hemorrhagic fever areas each year

The development of a Machupo virus vaccine would be of great value, not only to Bolivians, but to laboratory workers outside of Bolivia. But is seems that the most acute need is for the protection of Argentine ...(AU)

Publicado en inglés en la Serie de Publicaciones Científicas de la OPS 147:260-265, 1967