Mexico fumigates flooded Tabasco to prevent dengue
Pastor Dale Morgan
Mexico fumigates flooded Tabasco to prevent dengue*
by Staff Writers
Mexico City (AFP) Nov 17, 2007
Mexican health authorities Saturday began aerial spraying of southern
Tabasco state, including its capital Villahermosa, after massive floods
earlier this month raised a bumper crop of mosquitos that can spread dengue.
"The job will cover the 10,000 hectares (24,700 acres) of Villahermosa
and surroundings and will be complemented with ground fumigation of
streets and empty lots and homes," the Health Ministry said in a statement.
The fumigation operation, it added, will be carried out in three phases
of three days each, ending in early December.
Tabasco and neighboring Chiapas states suffered widespread flooding
after driving rains in late October and early November swelled rivers in
the regions and triggered deadly lanslides that swallowed one village.
More than half of Tabasco's two million population were forced to
evacuate their homes at the height of the flooding -- one of Mexico's
worst, that has left at least 15 people dead, another 10 still missing
and tens of thousands homeless.