Question from Beth in St. Maarten:
Should Deet be used on children?
Answer:
First of all Beth, 25% DEET or higher (by weight) is too potent for young children who are not mature enough to consciously keep their fingers out their eyes and mouths. But as everything else, not all children act their age so determine individually which children should not be allowed to use Deep Woods Off! Otherwise, you need to choose a lower age-specific grade of Off! for the young ones, that is one with less DEET than Deep Woods. Check the product label.
And by the way, there is no such thing as a strain of Dengue that is not potentially deadly. What makes Dengue deadly is if you were unfortunate enough to have had a prior bout of the disease, which will nevertheless bestow lifelong immunity on you. It is the second attack, with a different strain for which you have no immunity, that could prove to be fatal.
Remember, there are four strains of Dengue, Den-1, 2, 3 and 4. A first infection is highly unlikely to be fatal although it can be. The mortality rate for Classic Dengue is no more than 1%.
According to the National Biological Information Infrastructure the West Nile virus (WNV) was first detected in the Western Hemisphere in 1999 and has since rapidly spread across the North American continent into all 48 continental states, seven Canadian provinces, and throughout Mexico. In addition, WNV activity has been detected in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Guadeloupe and El Salvador. (Source: http://www.mommypr.com/?p=8450)
