After more than six months of hiding information on the circulation of variants in Nicaragua, the Ministry of Health (Minsa) sent an update report to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), where it confirmed that the “ four variants of concern ”of covid-19: Alpha, Gama, Beta and Delta.
Since last May, the Ministry of Health (Minsa) received the molecular screening material to identify new variants of covid-19 in Nicaragua, donated by PAHO; However, according to the agency, in all this time the authorities of the country had not reported on the progress of this search.
Now, this Wednesday, the Incident manager for covid-19 of PAHO, Sylvain Aldighieri confirmed that they have “received the information requested from the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health that highlights the identification in Nicaragua of the four variants of concern ”of the covid-19 in Nicaragua.
Added that the circulation of the four variants in Nicaragua is “a situation totally consistent with the circulation of these variants in the other Central American countries.”
Minsa does not alert dangerousness of variants of covid-19
The Minsa, despite knowing about the circulation of new strains of covid-19 in the country, has not alerted the population about the risk posed by new variants of the virus. Independent physicians, according to reports from CONFIDENTIAL, have identified changes in the manifestation of covid-19 in patients, which could be associated with the new strains of concern.
The epidemiologist Leonel Arguello, Multidisciplinary Scientific Committee, warned a few months ago that the new strains are “more contagious” and many of the patients “are getting complicated much faster and it has also been seen that there is higher mortality.”
Aldighieri stressed that the Nicaraguan Health authorities are “responding” to the questions to PAHO; Nevertheless, did not mention that this was the only country in Central America that had not reported on the new strains circulating in the country.
Until mid-2021, according to PAHO, at least one of the worrying variants of covid-19 had been detected in 47 countries and territories of the Americas. Only in 11 countries in the region had all four been detected: Alpha, Gama, Beta and Delta.
New variants force change of strategy against covid-19
The Covid-19 Citizen Observatory warned, through a statement, that the confirmation of the circulation of the four variants of concern in Nicaragua “requires a change in the national prevention strategy, implementing established control measures of proven efficacy to reduce transmission ”of the coronavirus.
In addition, they recommended that surveillance be strengthened, a systematic approach to follow-up based on local contexts be adopted, and any unusual epidemiological events be detected.
The independent monitoring pointed out that the late information on the circulation of the new strains makes it clear, after the regrowth that took place in September and October, that “the national authorities once again allowed citizens to face this health crisis without the adequate information to know the risk to which it was exposed and to take measures to protect health and life ”.
In this context, the Observatory concludes by making an urgent call to citizens to “continue taking all the necessary prevention measures” to avoid the spread of covid-19.
