MADRID, Spain.- Cuban children are being the most affected by the current dengue epidemic that is going through the country.
“We have observed an increase in dengue cases in children, even with severe cases,” acknowledged Dr. Lissette del Rosario López, Head of the National Pediatric Group of the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP).
According to López, quoted by the official newspaper Granma, dengue “is not new in Pediatrics” and “pediatric services have experience in managing patients with dengue; but around the month of July it began to be noticed that the increase was sustained in the number of cases, and the severity was not only given by the number of patients who entered intensive care, but also in how they were admitted to hospitals.
“In those months, it was striking that children could present a marked tendency to sleep, or suddenly began with cardiovascular disorders (even in the case of healthy children),” he added.
The owner also reported that this Tuesday there was a child reported as critical, and six seriously ill patients.
Faced with this situation, and “the need to define what is happening, and to know the causes to take action in this regard,” López indicated that “studies have been designed with the aim of characterizing – clinically, epidemiologically, virologically, and biologically – to a group of children and adults with a picture of dengue with warning signs, and with severe dengue.
Last September, the Cuban authorities predicted that dengue cases would increase on the island for the months of October and November. This increase in cases, which has been reflected in October, together with the precarious health situation in Cuba, has led to the collapse of the hospitals. In addition, the unsanitary conditions throughout the country, the number of pits pending evacuation of their waste and the shortage of fumigatorsmake this picture worse and worse.
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