The European Union (EU) donated 1,500,000 euros (approximately $1,607,745) to “reinforce” measures regarding the increase in dengue cases in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay and Bolivia.
According to a statement released this Monday, April 29, the funds allocated to this cause “have been mobilized by the General Directorate of Civil Protection and European Humanitarian Aid Operations” and will be “implemented by the Pan American Health Organization ( OPS).
The international organization states that its financing will contribute to “strengthening the capacity for surveillance and early detection, as well as improving the clinical management of the most serious cases.” The main objective of the EU is to avoid “cases of preventable deaths”, especially in the most vulnerable patients, such as those suffering from acute malnutrition.
Related news: Dengue cases increase by 200% in Nicaragua
«Cases of dengue, an endemic disease in the region, increased significantly during the past year, which ended with a record incidence. The increase continued in the first quarter of this year, with more than 1,400 deaths recorded until early April,” the letter details.
The humanitarian organization detailed that the high number of cases “are being recorded outside the usual time of virus outbreaks” and there is fear of “a greater increase during the next rainy season, particularly in Central America.”
According to the EU, other causes that contribute to the reproduction of mosquitoes that transmit the disease (the Aedes aegypti) are “climate change, rising temperatures and heavy rains.”
According to reports in the media, so far in 2024, Nicaragua has accumulated 17,339 people affected by dengue. The regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has launched preventive cleaning and abatement campaigns in the communities, but the disease continues to affect the population.
Humanitarian aid continues to Ortega
Although the dictator Ortega has insulted and criticized the EU and the United Nations (UN) on different occasions, humanitarian organizations maintain their financial support for charitable causes for the Nicaraguan people.
In October 2019, the Nicaraguan president described the EU’s actions as “ridiculous” and accused it of joining the policies «interventionists» and «imperialists» of the United States against its dictatorship.
Related news: Dengue cases increase in Nicaragua
During his speech, Ortega stated that the European Parliament commission that visited Nicaragua in January of that year “seemed like sensible people,” but then the officials showed and denounced the repression of his regime. For the president, the criticisms were “tougher messages.”
“Asking for blood, that’s what they (the European Union) are asking for, blood,” Ortega accused. The dictator also demanded “respectful relations” from the organization and reiterated that his government “never wanted to be a colony.”
