Kill mosquitoes. Use repellent (DEET, if possible). Check to make sure there is no standing water anywhere in your general vicinity. Don't take aspirin, just in case it's the bleeding kind.
Dengue fever is back with a vengeance in 2008, and I heard last night that the number of cases in the city of Rio from January 1 until yesterday IS GREATER THAN THE TOTAL NUMBER OF CASES FROM LAST YEAR. Yes, last year. And yes, 26,688 is greater than 25,107. We're not even 3 months in. 31 people have died, I personally know 2 people who have gotten sick this time around, and it's not pretty. There aren't enough doctors or hospital beds, though the government is conceding more. Compared to the enormous lines outside the hospitals, it is little. How will it help?
While dengue is equal-opportunity, health care here is not. It makes me sad and overwhelms me to think about; the least of reasons is that there are some out there who think national health care (socialized medicine, whatever you want to call it) will solve the health care crisis in the US. It doesn't work in a country the size of my home state (Great Britain is roughly the size of Georgia), it doesn't work here in Brazil, and it certainly won't work in the US. A solution has to be out there somewhere; the trick is finding it.
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Some think that handing healthcare over to the US government is the answer With the great job they are doing with Social security and other things do we really want to trust them with medicine. You think private healthcare is expensive now. 5 or 10 years in to a government run healthcare and you will be begging to pay twice as much for private health care. The answer. It is not government. The answer is for people to take their health in to their own hands. Obesity, smoking, and all the other illnesses that come from bad lifestyle choices probably take up a big chunk of change to treat. My opinion it is needless. You may not be able to prevent a brain tumor. But diabetes brought on from obesity could have been. Take care of yourself and get as healthy as you can and maybe this problem will be minimized.
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