• Submitted by: manso
• Society
• 05 / 23 / 2011

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By: Tomas Armenteros Crespo .Havana, May 21 (Prensa Latina) Cuba has announced the 12th International Workshop on Dengue and Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever, hosted by the Pedro Kouri Institute for Tropical Medicine, will be held in August.

The workshop is organized by the institute's Pan-American Health Organization/WHO coordinating center, and is dedicated to Professor Gustavo Kouri Flores, who until his death on May 5, was the founder and director of the institute.

The two-week workshop is aimed at increasing capacities for controlling and preventing dengue, in the light of the latest information and experiences.

Issues to be covered include clinics, epidemiology, virology, immunology, vector control, environmental factors and community participation, according to the initial program, avaialble on the website Infomed.

Scientists and collaborators from organizations that are leading dengue fever studies are expected at the workshop, sponsored by the Cuban Public Health Ministry, the PAHO/WHO and the WHO Special Program for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases.

A pandemic of dengue fever, a viral disease carried by mosquitos, began during World War II and intensified from the 1970Â?s.

Hemorrhagic dengue is the most dangerous version of the disease, and has spiraled to more than 2.5 billion people at risk, nearly 50 million cases, and 250 to 500 severe cases each year.

Currently, the disease is reported in South East Asia, the Western Pacific, the Americas and Mediterranean countries, and increase in the number of epidemics has been seen in Africa.