[Toward integrated dengue control ]

Dengue is the most important arthropod-borne viral disease, it is characterized by mild symptoms to hemorrhagic manifestations and shock syndrome (DHF/DSS). Dengue and DHF/DSS have become major public health problems worldwide. In the urban areas of tropical and subtropical regions approximately 50 million infections occur annually. In Venezuela the situation is similar to the rest of the Americas. The impact of dengue points out the necessity of very organized and effective control programs. The emergency measures to combat the epidemics have had limited effects. There is not a specific management of dengue infections, no vaccine is commercially available and vector control is one of the alternatives to stop the spread of the disease, but an integral control program is needed, with each population's particularities and the state of epidemic risk in that it is. In the practice, it is to combine the environmental reparation with the changes in the human behavior taken place by the sanitary education and the necessary laws for it, integrated with the biological fight against the vector in the way and more appropriate moment and the chemical control in epidemic situations. This last aspect is fundamental as message of change toward an active attitude and of conscience, without which we can affirm with all security that doesn't exist government neither system of health able to solve this problem.