DAKAR (AlertNet) - An epidemic of dengue fever is sweeping across the West African state of Cape Verde. Thousands of people have caught the disease which has killed six people in the archipelago, local authorities have said.

It is the worst dengue fever epidemic in West Africa and the first ever recorded in Cape Verde.

The illness, which has similar symptoms to those of flu and malaria - headache, fever, exhaustion and severe muscle pain - is transmitted by the bite of infected female aedes mosquitoes and can be deadly once it develops to haemorrhagic fever.

Here are the recent facts and figures on the crisis in Cape Verde.

Over 13,000 people are suspected to have caught the disease in four of the ten islands of the archipelago of just over 400,000 inhabitants, since the end of September, and there have been 3,000 confirmed cases. The worst hit island is Santiago which is home to the capital city, Praia.

After a peak of 1,111 suspected cases registered on 4 November alone, the number of suspected new cases per day has stabilised between 600 and 900, health authorities said.

There are about 109 confirmed cases of haemorrhagic fever, which is the most serious condition of dengue fever.

France, Portugal, Switzerland and Thailand have flown in 29 medical staff with equipment and medication following an international appeal for assistance issued last week by the West African island state and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has released $152,100 from its Disaster Relief Emergency Fund to support the Red Cross Society of Cape Verde in its response to the outbreak.

Nearly 500 Red Cross volunteers are carrying out clean up, water treatment and sanitisation campaigns as well as providing medical support to hospitals filled with patients and crowded by family members worried about sick relatives. But the magnitude of the outbreak is such that the Cape Verde Red Cross has appealed for more volunteers.

The Cape Verde military, para-military and civil protection services are also involved in a push to destroy breeding grounds of the vector of the virus.

Cape Verde has also been hit by the pandemic H1N1 flu. In the beginning of the dengue epidemic, many health practitioners thought patients were suffering from H1N1 which may have delayed the early detection of the crisis, the Cape Verde Red Cross Society said.

Meanwhile, 55 cases of dengue fever have been reported in neighbouring Senegal, the IFRC said in a statement on Thursday. But the organisation has not linked these cases to the situation in Cape Verde.

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