Bush-era joke: Someone reportz to Prez W that “12 Brazilian Soldiers were Killed.” W shakes his head at the sad news and asks “How many is a Brazilian?”

While the effects of Bush-era environmental fiddling will be lasting for some time to come, we continue to connect the dots between the disease of climate rise and its symptoms. Brazil’s government deployed the army in Rio Monday to fight an outbreak of dengue fever that has sickened more than 45,000 people since January this year compared to 25,107 cases in all of 2007. Three new military field hospitals were set up in Rio de Janeiro state to ease the shortage of hospital beds and take some of the pressure off emergency rooms packed with victims of the mosquito-borne disease. Fifty four people have died in the state this year, while more than 60 reported deaths are under investigation.

The mosquito-borne illness (mosquitoes like tropical climates so as the globe warms, their habitat will expand, ero more people face infection) Dengue causes high fevers, severe headaches and joint pains but is not usually fatal. More than half the fatalities have been children under 13 years of age, state health authorities said. Of the hemisphere’s 317 deaths, 158 came in Brazil, including 31 in Rio state. Treating victims has been complicated by a shortage of pediatricians. On Monday, Rio de Janeiro Health Secretary Sergio Cortes requested 154 pediatricians from other states to help out. On Monday night, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said officials at all levels – including himself – are to blame for mishandling the problem.

While such officials may currently only take ownership for not heeding the “direct” warning signs of the Dengue epidemic, we are optimistic that the links will be made soon to the struggle to keep the earth’s temperature within a range suitable for the continuance of the human enterprise as we basically know it now.

According to the Pan American Health Organization:

Brazil had more than half of the 900,782 cases of dengue in the Americas last year.

via:: CBS News