The University Pediatric Hospital of Central Havana, located in that municipality of the capital of Cubaofficially reported this Tuesday about the death last Sunday of a four-year-old girl in the institution and ruled out that the death was due to dengue.
In a note posted on your Facebook profile and shared by the Provincial Directorate of Health in Havana, the hospital center explained that the minor, a resident of the neighboring Cerro municipality, was referred from the Pediatric of that territory, where a diagnosis of the viral disease transmitted by the virus had already been ruled out. mosquito bite Aedes aegypti.
The girl, the note refers, was admitted to a room “appropriate to the requirements that the little girl had at that time”, where she was received by the chief specialist of the medical guard at 12:53 in the morning. According to the entity, she did not have a fever or vomiting, she was maintained with a channeled vein and hydration.
After being visited by the ward specialist on Sunday morning, when she was “awake, hydrated, without fever”, she suffered a “sudden event” at 10:00 AM, for which she had to be transferred to the intensive care unit. Already there, despite the resuscitation work carried out by doctors, nurses and paramedics for 47 minutes, the minor was unable to recover and her death was declared “with profound pain”.
The medical note specifies that “severe cardiovascular dysfunction with cardiogenic shock was clinically diagnosed, in the course of fulminant myocarditis.” At the time of publication, the results of the autopsy were not yet known, a procedure that could shed more light on what happened.
However, the hospital institution reiterated that the complementary studies carried out to rule out a dengue condition for the minor, both at the Cerro Pediatric Hospital and in the Centro Habana Hospital, “were negative”, as was the lumbar puncture performed.
This information was reiterated by the Provincial Health Directorate, which, when reproducing the note, considered “important to clarify” the negative result of the studies to diagnose a possible case of dengue, carried out in both hospitals. “That is, the little girl’s death has nothing to do with arbovirus disease,” he reiterated.
The official statement states that the director of the Pediatric where the girl died “interviewed with the family and explained the sad sequence of events that led to death” and also informed them about the “preliminary results, pending the results of the necropsy, to schedule a new interview.”
Cuba is currently experiencing an increase in dengue cases and a high infestation by Aedes aegypti, which has caused the transmission of the disease in several provinces of the country.
Recently, the Cuban Minister of Public Health, José Ángel Portal, confirmed that dengue transmission had been identified in eight provinces, including Havana, and that 71 municipalities were classified as “high risk.” Given this situation, the Cuban authorities have called for reinforcing the confrontation with the vector and the prevention of the disease, as well as going to the doctor in case of symptoms.
