San Juan, Puerto Rico: Mosquito-borne dengue fever is reaching epidemic stages across the Caribbean, with dozens of deaths reported and health authorities concerned it could get much worse as the rainy season advances.
The increase in cases is being blamed on warm weather and an unusually early rainy season, which has produced an explosion of mosquitoes.
Health officials say the flood of cases is straining the region's hospitals. In the Dominican Republic, where at least 27 deaths have been reported, hundreds of health workers and soldiers went door-to-door on Saturday to warn about the virus and destroy mosquito breeding areas.
Hospitals in Trinidad are running out of beds, and Puerto Rico is facing what officials say could be its worst dengue outbreak in more than a decade.
"We are having a really large epidemic," said Kay Tomashek, epidemiology section chief of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention's dengue branch in Puerto Rico.
Suspected cases
At least five people have died in the US Caribbean territory, and another 6,300 suspected cases have been reported as of mid-July, she said.
Only 100 more cases were reported during the same period in 1998, which marked the island's worst dengue outbreak. By the end of that year, the virus had sickened 17,000 and killed 19 people.
In Trinidad, officials added 15 beds to the San Fernando General Hospital on Friday. They also opened a dengue clinic to follow up on patients who are being discharged quickly to free up more beds.
Dr Anton Cumberbatch, chief medical officer of the island's health ministry, said he is worried about the number of deaths.
