Eladio Pérez, Vice Minister of Collective Health, provided the information, describing the acquisition of biologicals through the Pan American Health Organization’s (PAHO) Revolving Fund as “very positive.” Pérez explained that, despite the lack of confirmed cases in the country, the international organization was asked if the Dominican Republic would have vaccines due to its proximity to Haiti, where there are already more than 24,000 cases.

Gina Estrella, the Ministry of Health’s director of Risk and Disaster Management, confirmed six new positive cases of cholera, bringing the total to 25 since the outbreak began. “They are all from Villa Liberación (El Almirante, Santo Domingo Este),” said Estrella. Meanwhile, Yocasta Lara, the director of Hospital Centers of the National Health Service (SNS), stated that only nine of the 289 beds available throughout the country for cholera management are currently occupied, accounting for 3% of the total. Five adults and four minors are among the nine suspected patients awaiting confirmation of their diagnosis.

According to Estrella, the health authorities intervened “quite forcefully” in the Villa Liberación sector of El Almirante, Santo Domingo Este, after suspected cases of cholera were discovered within a family nucleus. So far, more than 90 houses have been visited looking for other possible infected people and, together with the Santo Domingo Aqueduct and Sewerage Corporation (CAASD), the water wells in the aforementioned sector are being evaluated, since “they have never been given treatment”. Similarly, the doctor stated that a mobile hospital has been in place since yesterday “to maintain active surveillance and attack (cholera) as we did in La Zurza.”

on Monday due to shock, severe dengue fever with warning signs, leptospirosis, and a urinary tract infection, according to the death certificate issued by the health center.

The young pregnant woman underwent a Kerr-type cesarean section with the consent of her relatives to save the child she carried in her womb. Unfortunately, the baby died as well. The remains of the young woman and her daughter are buried in her home, which is almost directly in front of Padre Granero’s Catholic Church. People come to the site to express their condolences to their relatives and to express their sorrow over this tragic event.

While the Ministry of Health investigates an alleged dengue outbreak in the Padre Granero, Bello Costero, and La Laguna sectors. Several residents of that region have been hospitalized after exhibiting symptoms of these health conditions.

Because the mode of transmission is fecal-oral, that is, associated with water and food contaminated with fecal matter, greater care should be directed to food handling, cleanliness and hygiene at home, and constant hand washing.

As the Dominican Society of Intectology has pointed out, state and local governments must also ensure access to safe water and tools to maintain hygiene measures.

Watery and whitish diarrhea, like rice water, vomiting, dry mouth, weakness, and drowsiness are all symptoms of cholera, which can lead to death if not treated quickly.

Public Health teams are still in the neighborhoods in action to prevent the spread of cholera.
However, the Ministry of Health is still awaiting the results of three tests on an equal number of patients with suspected signs of the disease. Teams of health workers and epidemiologists are in the affected areas, carrying educational messages about the need for the population to educate themselves and have access to safe drinking water.

“There are no new details of the situation, but all our teams are in the neighborhoods where cases have been reported,” Carlos Suero, Director of Communications of the Ministry of Health, told Hoy.

The situation

Dr. Gina Estrella, director of Risk Management and Disaster Attention of the Ministry of Health, emphasized that tests from the Doctor Defilló Laboratory have registered only 17 proven cases. Therefore, three more trials are expected.

The specialists

Both the Dominican Society of Infectious Diseases and the Society of Gastroenterology have insisted on the need for the authorities to make more comprehensive interventions in the affected areas. Dr. Clevy Perez has been adamant that Public Health should convince the Government of the need to supply water permanently to the inhabitants of the neighborhoods. The Society of Gastroenterology has said the same. Furthermore, they believe education and hygienic measures should be taken to the utmost.

Doctors

In another order, but in the same field of Health, the doctors met with the National Council of Social Security after the union, which groups the professionals continued with the strikes and disaffiliation to the ARS.

This time the strike and disaffiliation affected the affiliates of the Administradora de Riesgos de Salud Humano. Unfortunately, no agreements were reached at yesterday’s meeting, but the parties were summoned for next week.

Neither the Minister of Health, Dr. Daniel Rivera, nor the National Social Security Council president, Luis Miguel De Camps, participated in the last meeting. This time there has been one of the system’s most complex and extended crises. Doctors are demanding their demands and want changes.

Santo Domingo, DR
A low incidence of viruses that weeks ago created pressures on the health system, among them influenza, Covid-19, and dengue, while the authorities put more emphasis on the control of cholera, produced by bacteria, to prevent its further spread.

Yesterday, the Ministry of Public Health kept under surveillance two hospitalized patients suspected of cholera, but with stable evolution, and assured that the case of a patient coming from Boca Chica with a diarrhea condition is not cholera, but that in any case, for preventive purposes, they proceeded to intervene in the community where he resides.

The details were given to Listín Diario by Dr. Gina Estrella, in charge of Emergencies and Disasters of the Ministry of Public Health, who assured that the country maintains up to now the figure of 17 confirmed cases of cholera and that in Zurza, where an outbreak was registered, control of the cases was achieved and that the dredging of the Isabela river was started to guarantee its fluidity.

He recalled that in addition to Zurza, cases were initially detected in Capotillo and two imported cases in San Carlos. However, prevention interventions are extended to all health areas of Greater Santo Domingo, as well as active surveillance at the national level. He said that out of 90 random cholera tests taken over the weekend in La Zurza and Capotillo, only four were positive, of which two were asymptomatic persons.

Regarding the cases of the influenza virus, Covid-19, and dengue, which maintained high levels of circulation during the last months of last year, the director of Emergencies and Disasters pointed out that they currently maintain a low incidence at the national level.

Since the presence of the Vibrio cholera bacterium was discovered in the country again, the neighborhood above has led to several infections of the condition. It has caused the appearance of others in neighboring sectors such as Villa Agricolas, for which the ministries of Health Public, Public Works, Environment, and the National District Mayor’s Office are stepping up sanitation efforts.

In addition to cleaning the wells, the community is constructing four containers to collect garbage that falls from the houses in the upper part of the community so that it does not contaminate the waters. When speaking with this outlet, Juan Luis Vásquez, a member of the team doing the work, stated that they are also encouraging people not to throw their waste in the area to avoid disease outbreaks. “We’re trying to make them aware because we’re doing this for their benefit,” he explained.

Another government measure to halt the spread of the disease is the dredging of a large portion of the Isabela River, which borders La Zurza and, according to authorities, contains the bacteria that transmits cholera. According to official information, a dividing mesh will be placed around the stream once the sanitation is completed to prevent it from becoming clogged with solid waste again.

This is stated by psychologist María de Los Santos, president of the Association of Health Psychologists (ASOPSALUD), noting that it is common to receive patients with emotional conditions in hospital consultations, manifested mainly in panic attacks, post-traumatic stress, social isolation, sleep disorder, depression, use and abuse of psychoactive substances, deep sadness, and suicide attempts.

She said that although cases of this nature have always attended the psychological services of health centers, currently or in the post-pandemic there has been a greater increase in emotional disorders since during the pandemic many people lost their jobs, and loved ones and they felt afraid of getting sick and not being able to seek financial support. “Now we are receiving more people with grief, grief in the Dominican population, people have little tolerance, they get irritated easily.”

The president of the Association of Health Psychologists said that in hospital consultation, especially in hospitalized patients who are going through a medical breakdown, there are frequent cases of mothers who become ill and are emotionally affected because they cannot afford the treatment and fear die and leave their young children alone. Many people believe that getting sick will affect the family economy or that they will not be able to enter the professional and productive world, which also leads them to depression.

Estrella explained that the ministry maintains house-to-house operations in areas such as La Zurza and Capotillo, where a random survey of 68 samples was conducted, collecting samples from both symptomatic patients and those who did not present themselves at the Hospital. “Of these tests, we have only four positives. Two of them were completely asymptomatic patients, and two were hospitalized patients” (Goico).

According to the doctor, Public Health collaborates with the Corporation of Aqueduct and Sewerage of Santo Domingo (CAASD) and the ministries of Education, Environment, and Public Works to develop disease promotion and prevention efforts. “We’re waiting for permission to build the bridge and move the dredgers and equipment to the area to start dredging a large portion of La Isabela that adjoins the La Zurza sector,” she explained. Similarly, Estrella assured that they are looking for efficient ways to dump solid waste and improve the quality of La Poza’s waters.

“We are watching every area along the river’s banks,” she said again. Concerning the spread of bacteria in areas other than the riverbank, such as Villas Agrcolas and San Carlos, the doctor stated, “the fact that I live in one sector does not mean that I do not move to another.” Eladio Pérez, Vice Minister of Collective Health, recalled that in neighboring Haiti, more than 24,000 cases had already been reported, with over 450 people dying.

“The more the epidemiological curve develops in the neighboring country, the more likely it is that it will occur in ours,” he said.

“The fact that cholera is going in crescendo shows shortcomings, those same places that today are showing sick patients and some deceased, are the same as in 2010,” he said, also questioning the action taken by the Social Security System at that time, since today the indicators are the same and “we are worse off”. In addition, the union leader stated that they will carry out several actions in the La Zurza sector, such as a new analysis of the water to determine the particles that inhabit it, “so that the population sees the truth of the Medical College.”

The State intervened after three cases of the disease in the last sweep in various neighborhoods such as the Nuevo Domingo Sabio Project, the former La Ciénaga, and Los Guandules, as well as Capotillo, El 24 de Abril, Gualey, Simón Bolivar, and Villas Agricolas. However, according to residents of Villas Agricolas, it took them a long time to get there, and some are still unaware of the government entities’ movements in their communities to stop the cholera outbreak. Although the only cases still active in the country are in La Zurza and Villas Agricolas, where the outbreak’s first and only death occurred last Thursday, the other four locations were also intervened in over the weekend, according to Public Health.

The director of Health Area IV, Jesus Suard, confirmed that 300 people were ready to form brigades that rummaged through neighborhoods looking for suspected cases, that is, people with chronic diarrhea, vomiting, headaches, and other symptoms. Suard stated that the teams that conduct house-to-house visits also educate the population on cholera prevention, but that in most of the allegedly affected areas, people are unaware of the Ministry’s movements.

One of them is Magna Elena Ramos, who lives in San Carlos, where the Ministry of Public Health (MSP) identified two positive individuals of Haitian origin with the disease last Friday. She is concerned about the disease’s potential for harm. “It’s dangerous if you don’t attend to yourself on time, which is why you have to eat healthy and nothing from the street,” she explained.

Another resident of the sector who only eats food prepared at home José de la Rosa said that street food is the most likely to spread the disease. “You can’t get it at home, but if you eat nonsense on the streets, you’ll get it because they’re not made with the same hygiene,” he said emphatically. Santiago Nuñez, who also lives in San Carlos, has urged authorities to stop the spread of cholera to prevent more cases, particularly among children, the elderly, and people with pre-existing diseases, who are the most vulnerable to death. Similarly, the gentleman urged citizens to follow the recommendations of the health portfolio and specialists to combat the condition.

Because suspicious cases have emerged, some Villas Agricolas residents are also tightening hygiene standards to avoid being included in the bacterial condition’s statistical reports. This is what Ramón Fernández is doing, who has made washing his hands before eating and after using the restroom a daily priority to avoid contracting the disease. Similarly, Julio de Los Santos, who has lived in the neighborhood for years, stated that the population must help the government contain the contagion by taking the necessary precautions.