In the last two months, Nicaragua has suffered an outbreak of dengue that exceeds the number of cases reported during 2021 and places the country as the third with the highest incidence by inhabitants of America. However, the Health authorities and the Government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo do not alert the population about the increase in cases.
According to data published in the epidemiological bulletins of the Ministry of Health (Minsa), which are two weeks out of phase, until September 6, 47,432 suspected cases of dengue were reported, 1.2 times more than the 36,741 accumulated in 2021 and 68 % more than those reported in the first eight months of that year.
Likewise, the Minsa admits in its online publication that up to epidemiological week 35 —which includes August 30 to September 6, 2022— they confirmed 1,426 cases, this figure is almost three times more than those identified in the 52 weeks of the year. previous.
Despite this increase, the state spokeswoman Rosario Murillo, who every Monday “reports” briefly on the country’s epidemic situation, has limited herself to assuring: “we have an increase in dengue that is being attended to.”
An analysis of epidemiological statistics, done by CONFIDENTIALreveals that in the first five months of 2022, dengue had a similar behavior to last year: an average of 700 weekly suspected cases.
However, from June the cases exceeded 1,200 infections until in week 32 — from August 9 to 16 — the peak of 6,008 suspected cases was reached. Since then, between 3,302 and 3,480 infections have been reported.
The cases confirmed by the Minsa, in the first eight months of 2022, already exceed those accumulated during 2020 and 2021, when 1,243 and 513 were reported, respectively. This year, there are already 1,426.
The Minsa Health Map reveals that in the first half of 2022 there were 2,624 hospitalizations due to “suspicious dengue fever”. This indicates that 12.7% of suspected cases had to be hospitalized.
With high incidence in America
The report of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) indicates that Nicaragua is the third country on the continent, after San Bartolomé Island (122) and Brazil (94), with the highest incidence of suspected dengue cases per 10,000 inhabitants. : 79.
According to PAHO, which receives direct data from the Minsa, in the last week Nicaragua accumulated 53,345 suspected cases of dengue and of these 11 developed as severe denguea type that can cause internal bleeding and even death if left untreated.
In Central America, 101,325 suspected cases of dengue are reported, of this total, 52.6% are from Nicaragua. Honduras is the second country with the highest number of infections: 17,829, followed by El Salvador with 13,988, Panama with 6,631, Guatemala with 5,098, and Costa Rica with 4,434. Belize does not report a single case.
In Nicaragua, dengue has been one of the epidemics that has gotten out of control. According to official data between 2001 and 2008, the country maintained an incidence of 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, but in 2009 it suffered an epidemic peak that raised cases to 297 and since then it has repeated high peaks of infections, reaching the highest number in 2019 : 2,844 cases per 100,000 people.
In 2019, the highest number of suspected cases was reported: 186,173. The following year they were reduced to 53,953 and in 2021 to 36,741. Dr. Marcos Espinal, director of the PAHO Department of Communicable Diseases and Environmental Determinants, explained to CONFIDENTIALthat this behavior is normal for the epidemic.
“After each dengue epidemic there is a decrease in cases, because the number of susceptible people is greatly reduced. That is why epidemics occur every three to five years,” he said.
