Says a retired CBC journalist I know who has retired to Nicaragua:
LA ALERGIA
I am posting this to the English-speakers’ pages for Jinotepe and Granada at the same time, so that I can either bore or needlessly alarm as wide a circle as possible.
There are reports this week about a regional outbreak of either Zika, Chikungunya or Dengue.
Medical staff at the public hospital in Jinotepe say that the outbreak is real, but they think that it is not a mosquito-carried disease.
Instead, they think it is a virus that is newly arrived in Nicaragua from either Asia or Africa.
They have not come up for a medical name for it yet. Instead, they call it “la alergia”, the allergy.
This is because the virus presents symptoms that are very similar to an allergic reaction.
In effect, it is like coming down with a mild case of the flu, except that there is also rash, swelling and bumps at the joints of the hands and knees.
Otherwise the symptoms are as follows … fever, headache, joint pain, perhaps cough and sore throat, and in some cases runny or stuffed noses.
Some people may also have vomiting and diarrhea, though it seems that this is more common in children than adults.
It is not life-threatening nor nearly as serious as mosquito-bourne diseases.
You are supposed to prevent and treat it like the flu, and everyone I know who got it whether he or she is an adult or child has fully recovered within a week.
School-age children who go to class with other kids are all sponges and transmitters of viruses. Please enlighten me about how I can prevent them from bringing these illnesses home to spread throughout the entire household.
Says a retired CBC journalist I know who has retired to Nicaragua:
LA ALERGIA
I am posting this to the English-speakers’ pages for Jinotepe and Granada at the same time, so that I can either bore or needlessly alarm as wide a circle as possible.
There are reports this week about a regional outbreak of either Zika, Chikungunya or Dengue.
Medical staff at the public hospital in Jinotepe say that the outbreak is real, but they think that it is not a mosquito-carried disease.
Instead, they think it is a virus that is newly arrived in Nicaragua from either Asia or Africa.
They have not come up for a medical name for it yet. Instead, they call it “la alergia”, the allergy.
This is because the virus presents symptoms that are very similar to an allergic reaction.
In effect, it is like coming down with a mild case of the flu, except that there is also rash, swelling and bumps at the joints of the hands and knees.
Otherwise the symptoms are as follows … fever, headache, joint pain, perhaps cough and sore throat, and in some cases runny or stuffed noses.
Some people may also have vomiting and diarrhea, though it seems that this is more common in children than adults.
It is not life-threatening nor nearly as serious as mosquito-bourne diseases.
You are supposed to prevent and treat it like the flu, and everyone I know who got it whether he or she is an adult or child has fully recovered within a week.
School-age children who go to class with other kids are all sponges and transmitters of viruses. Please enlighten me about how I can prevent them from bringing these illnesses home to spread throughout the entire household.