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Source: https://www.castanet.net/news/World...ry-mounts-over-both-COVID-19-and-dengue-fever
In hard-hit Peru, worry mounts over both COVID-19 and dengue fever
First COVID, now dengue
The Canadian Press - Oct 24, 2020 / 7:25 am | Story: 314350
Two of Lidia Choque’s close family members had already gotten sick with the new coronavirus when the mosquitos arrived.
The 53-year-old woman lives in a wooden house near the airport of a Peruvian city in the Amazon rainforest. City fumigators usually visit several times during the rainy season to eliminate the pests, but this year, because of the pandemic, they were absent.
When she went to a hospital after coming down with a fever and body aches, doctors delivered a double diagnosis: COVID-19 and dengue.
“I couldn’t even walk,” she said.
As Peru grapples with one the world’s worst SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks, another virus is starting to raise alarm: dengue.
Health officials have reported over 35,000 cases this year, concentrated largely in the Amazon. The rise comes amid an overall dip in the number of new daily coronavirus infections, though authorities worry a second wave could strike as dengue cases rise.
In the city of Pucallpa, where Choque lives, doctors say they are already encountering patients with both illnesses. Two physicians said dengue symptoms like fever and muscle aches tend to dominate, though the combination with COVID-19 can prove deadly.
“There is more risk,” said Dr. Rosmery Rojas, a physician at a public hospital she said is seeing 120 dengue patients a day...
In hard-hit Peru, worry mounts over both COVID-19 and dengue fever
First COVID, now dengue
The Canadian Press - Oct 24, 2020 / 7:25 am | Story: 314350
Two of Lidia Choque’s close family members had already gotten sick with the new coronavirus when the mosquitos arrived.
The 53-year-old woman lives in a wooden house near the airport of a Peruvian city in the Amazon rainforest. City fumigators usually visit several times during the rainy season to eliminate the pests, but this year, because of the pandemic, they were absent.
When she went to a hospital after coming down with a fever and body aches, doctors delivered a double diagnosis: COVID-19 and dengue.
“I couldn’t even walk,” she said.
As Peru grapples with one the world’s worst SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks, another virus is starting to raise alarm: dengue.
Health officials have reported over 35,000 cases this year, concentrated largely in the Amazon. The rise comes amid an overall dip in the number of new daily coronavirus infections, though authorities worry a second wave could strike as dengue cases rise.
In the city of Pucallpa, where Choque lives, doctors say they are already encountering patients with both illnesses. Two physicians said dengue symptoms like fever and muscle aches tend to dominate, though the combination with COVID-19 can prove deadly.
“There is more risk,” said Dr. Rosmery Rojas, a physician at a public hospital she said is seeing 120 dengue patients a day...