Plagues, Pestilences and Diseases
Dengue fever epidemic threatens Caribbean, kills dozens
By DANICA COTO
The Associated Press
Saturday, July 17, 2010; 7:09 PM
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Mosquito-borne dengue fever is reaching
epidemic stages across the Caribbean, with dozens of deaths reported
and health authorities concerned it could get much worse as the rainy
season advances.
The increase in cases is being blamed on warm weather and an unusually
early rainy season, which has produced an explosion of mosquitoes.
Health officials say the flood of cases is straining the region's
hospitals.
In the Dominican Republic, where at least 27 deaths have been reported,
hundreds of health workers and soldiers went door-to-door Saturday to
warn about the virus and destroy mosquito breeding areas.
Hospitals in Trinidad are running out of beds, and Puerto Rico is
facing what officials say could be its worst dengue outbreak in more
than a decade.
"We are having a really large epidemic," said Kay Tomashek,
epidemiology section chief of the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention's dengue branch in Puerto Rico.
At least five people have died in the U.S. Caribbean territory, and
another 6,300 suspected cases have been reported as of mid-July, she
told The Associated Press.
Only 100 more cases were reported during the same period in 1998, which
marked the island's worst dengue outbreak. By the end of that year, the
virus had sickened 17,000 and killed 19 people.
In Trinidad, officials added 15 beds to the San Fernando General
Hospital on Friday. They also opened a dengue clinic to follow up on
patients who are being discharged quickly to free up more beds. At
least one death has been reported.
Dr. Anton Cumberbatch, chief medical officer of the island's health
ministry, said he is worried that the number of deaths and cases of the
more severe hemorrhagic dengue will increase this year.
The more people are repeatedly infected, the greater the chance they
will develop the hemorrhagic form, which can be fatal, he told a recent
news conference.
And since Trinidad had a severe dengue bout just two years ago, that
means it is likely people who had the virus will get it again, he added.
"The risk and the severity of the dengue situation is apparently
rearing its head at a really rapid rate," Cumberbatch said.
The Dominican Republic is grappling with the same problem.
Nurses at a children's hospital in Santiago, which has one of the
highest dengue incidences this year, demanded more resources and
personnel. Four children died this week in Santiago, located northwest
of the capital of Santo Domingo.
Health Minister Bautista Rojas says more than 5,000 people have been
diagnosed with dengue, but Senen Caba, president of the Dominican
Medical Association, disputed those numbers and said doctors have
reported more than 7,000 cases.
"Hospitals are flooded with fever cases," Caba said. "Emergency rooms
are overflowing."
Caba said the last time the country experienced a similar dengue
epidemic was a decade ago.
"There has been a kind of explosion when it comes to mosquitoes," he
said of this year.
French Guiana, Guadeloupe and St. Martin also have registered a high
number of dengue cases, and more than 16,700 total cases had been
reported across the Caribbean through early June, according to the
latest statistics available from the Pan American Health Organization.
There are four types of dengue, and all cause fever, headaches and
extreme joint and muscle pain. Most victims recover within a week, and
while they become immune to the specific type of dengue they caught,
they are still vulnerable to other types, Tomashek said.
Health officials fear the virus, which had once disappeared from the
United States, also could gain a foothold there.
While test results for a suspected dengue case in the Miami area came
back negative this week, a recent study found five percent of Key West
residents show evidence they have been exposed to the virus.