Re: Dominican Republic: 2010 Dengue cases
http://www.google.com/hostednews/epa/article/ALeqM5jOaPCYQpWy1HTR3HmVMRm0wnhmUw
Spanish-English Translation-
The death of 18 children with dengue in 2010 generated alarm in the Dominican population
By Agencia EFE - 1 minute.
Santiago (Dominican Republic) 6 ago (EFE) .- The dengue death of 18 children in the Dominican city of Santiago (north) so far this year, nine of them since last May, has generated a widespread sense of alarm in the population, official sources said today and the medical sector.
According to the latest data offered by the Ministry of Public Health in 2010 so far 24 people have died because of dengue in the country and another 6,000 have been diagnosed with less aggressive variant of the disease.
The President of the Dominican Medical Association (CMD), Senen Caba, however, local media said today that more than 16,000 patients with symptoms of dengue are found in Dominican hospitals.
At the same time raised to the Dominican health authorities to declare the country in a state of emergency due to dengue cases have been registered, as they have, said public health officials in Panama, Honduras, El Salvador, Colombia and Argentina.
The president of the Dominican Association of Physicians of Northern Internists, Jos? Luis Castillo, asked the Ministry of Public Health to present the results of laboratory tests and autopsies of people who have died of suspected dengue.
He said dengue has become an epidemic, especially in the province of Santiago, the second in the country, where there have been 18 deaths of children and one new death from dengue is possible to be confirmed.
Castillo has denied that mismanagement by some physicians of cases of dengue, as recently said Dominican Public Health Minister Bautista Rojas Gomez.
"It is clear that the dengue epidemic is a consequence of the failure to prevent the permanent elimination of mosquito breeding and smart campaigns do not use insecticides because of the low investment in health by the state," observed the doctor.
The epidemiologist Plutarco Arias, former deputy minister of Public Health in the north, said in turn that the campaign against dengue running the Dominican authorities in the country, particularly in the province of Santiago, is not effective because they are reported almost daily deaths of people affected by the disease.
Dominican officials met again today to announce an emergency plan, which will be launched from tomorrow in 40 neighborhoods and communities in the province of Santiago to eliminate mosquito breeding sites that causes dengue.
The director of the Ministry of Public Health in Santiago, Ramon Martinez Henriquez, the governor Nidia Bison?, the head of Civil Defense, Francisco Arias, and other officials called this meeting to the public, particularly local organizations, to join the campaign.
Henr?quez Mart?nez said that the population has to contribute to the elimination of water containers, vases and other items that promote the spread of mosquito transmits dengue.
The president of the Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Santiago, Andres Ramos, said that the Dominican authorities have been irresponsible in combating dengue because they want to hide the truth.
"My granddaughter Yesenia Ramos, 21, died last month at the Regional Hospital Jose Maria Cabral y Baez de Santiago, the test results were positive for dengue, but we refused Public Health, as many families of the deceased disease, have on hand copies of the evidence, "said community leader.
Meanwhile, Vice Minister of Public Health Dominican Republic, Jos? Rodr?guez Aybar, told local media that many children who have died in the pediatric hospital in Santiago are from other provinces.
"Do not forget that the children's hospital in Santiago Arturo Grullon, like the others (hospitals) regional is here, patients come from other provinces of the Cibao" (North), said the official.
The Haitian doctor living in Santiago Onoisitenke Sene felt for his part said he has evidence of the death of at least three Haitian children in the pediatric hospital in the city.
"These deaths have gone unnoticed, no one has commented," the doctor told Efe Haiti, while he regretted the deaths.
