The Vice Minister of Collective Health, Eladio Pérez, acknowledged this Wednesday that the country has registered an increase in cases of denguealthough he clarified that the figures are within the expected parameters.
Pérez indicated that one cannot speak of outbreaks or epidemics because “for us to be able to say that we are in a moment of an epidemic is because the number of expected cases has exceeded.”
So far this year, the health authorities have recorded 8,340 cases and 42 deaths associated with the disease.
The vice minister explained that currently the predominant serotype is number two.
This classification is important because the circulation of serotypes is what affects the fact that in a year there are more cases of dengue than in others.
“Every year there are remnants of the previous serotypes. The one that already had denguehas more immunity against that serotype,” he explained.
This natural behavior of the virus causes it to have epidemic peaks that are repeated cyclically every two or four years.
case history
For his part, the director of the Robert Reid Cabral Hospital, Clemente Terrero, analyzed the history of cases of dengue in the last eight years.
The epidemiologist specified that the country has had two great epidemic years in that period: 2015 with 16,871 cases, of which 1,958 were treated at the Robert Reid, and 2019 with 19,053 cases, with 2,485 being the number of children who were treated in the aforementioned hospital.
“The dengue is expanding, increasing,” Terrero admitted.
“If we compare with the big outbreaks of 2015 and 2019, we are below,” he added.
Regarding the other years, the doctor said that in week 50 of 2016, 6,578 patients were registered; 1,341 in 2017; 1,415 in 2018; 3,950 cases in 2020 and 3,612 patients with dengue in 2021.
Terrero does not rule out that by the end of 2022, the number of records of the disease will reach 10,000 or 11,000 patients.
“The situation is expected, it is manageable,” he reiterated.
Clemente called for greater community participation to eliminate mosquito breeding sites.
