Dengue situation increasingly critical: Cases increase and hospitals collapse

MADRID, Spain.- The already critical situation due to dengue fever in Cuba continued to worsen during the month of October; the most affected provinces being Havana, Matanzas, Mayabeque, Las Tunas, Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo and the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud.

Already in July of this year, the Minister of Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, had recognized that the Island was going through a “complex” epidemiological scenario; as well as he specified that the record of reproduction points of the dengue mosquito of the last 15 years had been broken.

During the month of October, the dengue health crisis worsened in Sancti Spíritus due “to the low levels of environmental sanitation and the high number of dumping pits and pending evacuation of their residuals,” according to official data.

The lack of fumigators and “the non-compliance of some organizations both in the support with workers and with means of transportation”, also contribute to the continued proliferation of dengue in the country.

As explained to CubaNet Roberto Serrano Delis, a doctor in Songo La Maya, Santiago de Cuba province, the epidemiological situation is at its most critical point. He even confesses to being “amazed by the number of people with severe dengue. Above all, due to the severity of the clinical symptoms and the speed with which the virus is acting.

“Although it is true that dengue is one of the main causes of death in Latin America, serious manifestations are almost never so frequent. It is even said that more or less 80 percent of patients have mild symptoms and a satisfactory recovery. That is why, for me, what is happening now in Cuba is extraordinary”, assured the doctor.

During this week, the country’s authorities recognized that the children are being the most affected by the current dengue epidemic.

“We have observed an increase in dengue cases in children, including severe cases,” said Dr. Lissette del Rosario López, Head of the National Pediatric Group of the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP).

According to López, 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.

collapsed hospitals

The increase in cases and the precarious situation of the Cuban health system have led to the collapse of hospitals in recent months.

Several interviewed by CubaNet During this month they assured that they have received the indication to pass the disease in their homes because the hospitals are collapsed and they do not have the means to attend to the patients.

A resident of the Songo La Maya municipality explained to this medium that in the Ambrosio Grillo Surgical Clinical Hospital there are beds in the corridors, the mosquito nets are not enough and the only thing there is is serum”.

“Imagine the danger of being sick with dengue fever and not being able to be isolated under a mosquito net. So everyone will get infected. I had to spend it like this in Grillo, and that’s why I told my family not to go see me during those days, because I was afraid they would get infected, ”said the woman.

On the other hand, independent journalist Adriano Castañeda told Radio Television Marti that “in the José Martí Pediatric Hospital and in the Camilo Cienfuegos Provincial Clinical-Surgical Hospital, many rooms of both medical institutions are completely overcrowded with people with dengue.”

While Luis Alberto de la Nuez declared that in Cienfuegos “the hospitals no longer have the capacity for the number of cases, when there is an admission, the patient has to pay for a bed.”

“The Cuban health system,” he added, “in addition to being collapsed, is corrupt and ineffective.”

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