Measles is a highly infectious disease that is prevented by vaccines and has not been present in the Dominican Republic since 2001. In Canada, there are eight cases; Chile has one case of measles, and the United States has 29 confirmed cases.

The Vice Minister of Collective Health, Dr. Eladio Perez, read the epidemiological alert issued for the Dominican Republic. The country was declared free of the disease in 2010.

However, they are maintaining and intensifying surveillance to avoid the arrival of the disease affecting children in the country.

Mario Lama, vice minister of Collective Health and executive director of the National Health Service, respectively.

Greater Santo Domingo has 350 beds for dengue patients, primarily children. Dr. Lama said the Hugo Mendoza and Robert Reid Cabral hospitals have the highest bed demand.

In the last 24 hours, 100 patients were admitted, said Dr. Lama; the reduction is about 16%, especially in the previous 72 hours.

Those admitted
In the Metropolitan region, 315 people were admitted yesterday with suspected dengue fever; of those with PCR test, 39 have tested positive for the disease. It was announced that seven more intensive care beds would be opened in the mother and child area of the Marcelino Velez Santana hospital in the next few hours.

30 to 50 additional beds are also expected to be opened in the Mario Tolentino Dipp hospital.

Pressure for beds
The National Association of Private Clinics has been collaborating to habilitate more beds to attend to patients with dengue. Minister Daniel Rivera offered the information. However, the public network is trying to reserve beds for patients with other diseases.

The country currently has several circulating viruses, including respiratory syncytial, rhinovirus, influenza, and adenovirus. Health authorities perform PCR tests to detect dengue in less time.

Tests

The Ministry of Health said that, through the Doctor Defilló National Laboratory, specialized PCR tests are being performed to detect dengue in the shortest possible time and quickly diagnose the disease. The data are by the standards required for notifiable diseases, and PCR tests are performed for a faster diagnosis.

Santo Domingo.- The Ministry of Public Health authorities acknowledged on Wednesday that there is currently a “pressure” of dengue cases in at least two hospitals in Greater Santo Domingo.

He specified that currently, in the Metropolitan Health Network, are 315 patients admitted with symptoms related to dengue, of which 39 cases have been confirmed.

Given these statistics, Lama affirmed their “quite low” positivity. He added that all patients with suspected dengue are being followed up.

The head of the National Health Service also added that the 13 hospitals assigned to the SNS have set up 350 beds exclusively for dengue patients.

He specified that they have some 600 additional beds at the national level.

According to the director of the National Health Service (SNS), Mario Lama, most dengue cases are concentrated in the pediatric hospitals, Robert Reid Cabral and Hugo Mendoza. He also mentioned the Santo Socorro. However, the latter does not enable hospitalizations because it is being renovated, so they only assist in the emergency area.

Lama assured that in the last 72 hours, they have noticed a reduction in the number of dengue cases about admissions. They estimate that the hospitals of the Metropolitan Network received an average of 98 patients in the last three days, highlighting that they were around 115 last week.

“We are showing a reduction of between 15 and 16% in relation to admissions”, he pointed out.

He also pointed out that the children’s margin unit of the Marcelino Vélez Hospital will be opened tomorrow, Thursday, which will have an intensive care unit and will provide seven new beds to the system.

“Undoubtedly, this will take some pressure off while the measures to strengthen the fight against dengue begin to generate the expected responses,” he said.

He called on the population to go to the hospitals for assistance in case of any suspicion of dengue.

The data shows that 34,955 houses were fumigated and de-securitized, in addition to the delivery of educational material and other activities aimed at counteracting the spread of the disease in various areas of the country.

The social mobilization carried out during these two days involved the various entities grouped in the Cabinet of Action against Dengue, which also applied some 6,924 units of abate (larvicide), which serves to prevent the production of larvae in tanks and other containers used in water storage for domestic use.

Also, during the day, 1,372 posters or promotional materials were distributed among the 6,991 households visited, and hygiene kits containing chlorine, sponges to smear the tanks, and brochures, among others, were handed out. Fumigation actions were carried out in 56 sectors.

The Ministry of Public Health informed that, with the massive fumigations, the aim is to help reduce the vector population significantly so that the registered cases should decrease in the next few days.

In addition, the Health agency noted that the interventions seek to reduce the intensity of transmission during epidemics and reduce multiple infections of the disease, thus improving environmental health, among other actions, and recalling that dengue serotype three is the most abundant and that this did not circulate in the country since 2019.

From Monday 23 until Friday 27, the eight Health Areas of the Ministry of Health, in coordination with the General Directorate of Strategic and Special Projects (PROPEEP) and other agencies, are intervening in the sectors Mina and Barrio Peña, Guanuma, Sierra Prieta, Mata Mamón, Barrios La Ciénaga, Proyecto habitacional La Zurza and Villas Agrícolas, Capotillo, Cristo Rey, as well as Ensanche Kennedy, Mejoramiento Social, Las Cañitas, San Juan Bosco, San Miguel, Antonio Duvergé and Buenos Aires.

Also, La Agustina, Cristo Rey, Los Girasoles, Los Ríos, Las Caoba, La yuca and Pueblo Nuevo, Pantoja, Pedro Brand and Pueblo Nuevo.

This Tuesday, operations were carried out in Tamarindo, La Zurza, San Juan de la Maguana, 36 Norte, Emma Balaguer, Los Mártires, Máximo Gómez and 35 A streets, as well as the delivery of dengue induction and prevention material and other actions in 21 highway, in Ovando Avenue, Duarte, Moca Street, Callejón Progreso, Obrero and the back 21 in the Villas Agrícolas sector, as well as in Villa María, in Betances, San Martín, Osvaldo Basil, 15, 11 and Máximo Grullón streets. Some 28,312 people have been deployed by the various institutions that make up the Emergency Operations Center COE during the first day of the National Day of Action against Dengue.

The Ministry of Public Health confirms that these campaigns will continue throughout the national territory during the present week.

They intervened in 226 sectors throughout most of the national territory. During the operations in which the various institutions that make up the “Cabinet of Action against Dengue” intervened, 85,000 units of abate (larvicide) were applied to prevent larvae production in tanks and other containers used to store water for domestic use.

Likewise, 14 thousand hygiene kits containing mainly chlorine, sponges to smear the tanks, educational material, more than 15 thousand posters, and brochures, among others, were delivered. In the house-to-house visits, 112 thousand 976 homes were covered, and the fumigation actions were 478. This first stage consisted of two intervention actions with fumigation teams composed of trucks and motor pumps and a second one consisting of a broad vector control operation, elimination of breeding sites, and decacharrization (the discarding any pot or container where water can accumulate to prevent the spread of mosquitos).

Interventions
The interventions were carried out in the sectors with the highest incidence in the National District, La Romana, San Pedro de Macorís, Barahona, Montecristi, San Cristóbal, Puerto Plata, Santiago, and Greater Santo Domingo. Some 27,375 men and women who form part of the different institutions that make up the COE, the entity responsible for the operational aspect, joined the work.

The call was successful and achieved an excellent response from the population involved in the dengue prevention tasks through neighborhood councils and other community entities and, together with the authorities, contributed to eliminating breeding sites. The aim is to prevent the disease through mosquito control and reduce transmission intensity during the current epidemic in the country.

abate (insecticide) for the prevention and control of the virus transmitted by the bite of the Aedes aegypti mosquito.

Rivera said that 334 thousand houses were fumigated in 478 sectors nationwide.

“We always visit where the cases appear, but on this occasion, we visited and fumigated areas where there were no reported cases,” he said about the advantage of mobilizing in unison throughout the provinces.

Lowering the mosquito population
On his side, the Vice-Minister of Collective Health, Eladio Pérez, assured that these massive fumigations “will help us significantly reduce the vector population. Therefore, we will have a much more abrupt decrease in the next weeks.”

The epidemiologist indicated that in Hermanas Mirabal, the border area, Samaná, and Higüey, “the minimum number of cases” of dengue fever are reported, contrary to Santo Domingo North, Santo Domingo East, National District, and Santiago, which have been the main centers.

Perez valued the confirmation of the Cabinet to intensify the plans against the reproduction of the mosquito.

“The fact that the president (Luis Abinader) is coming to support us is extremely opportune, since, at a time when the situation is practically stabilized, to come and give that last blow is going to enhance all the consequences that will come in chain by that intervention,” he said when interviewed on television.

He recalled that dengue serotype 3 is the most abundant and has not circulated in the country since 2019.

“This leads to a population being vulnerable and also leads to greater severity,” he added.

Emergencies continue to be complete; SNS says cases are decreasing
View of the Emergency Room of the Hugo Mendoza Hospital (DANIA ACEVEDO).

Despite the preventive actions, the emergencies of the pediatric hospitals were still full on Monday morning.

At the Robert Reid Cabral alone, 72 children with febrile syndrome under suspicion of dengue fever; 32 were newly admitted. This slightly increased compared to Friday’s cases, when 64 infants were admitted with possible dengue fever.

That hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) reported no inpatients on the weekend.

However, the official statistics of the National Health Service (SNS) register 82 admissions in Santo Domingo in the last 24 hours. The total number of hospitalized is 332 in the Metropolitan region, which includes Greater Santo Domingo and Monte Plata.

“These figures reflect a reduction in relation to the weekend, since between Saturday and Sunday those admitted were 90 and 336 remained hospitalized,” the SNS said in a press release.

In total, the Public Health Network at the national level admitted 157 people for dengue fever in the last 24 hours between Sunday and Monday, with a total of 637 hospitalized.

The SNS guaranteed the availability of beds, supplies, and medicines, as well as the necessary specialized personnel to respond to the demand for dengue care.

1,752 patients at the Hugo de Mendoza Hospital
Meanwhile, the director of the Hugo Mendoza Hospital, Dhamelisse Then, declared in a television interview that, during the present outbreak, 1,752 patients had been admitted to the center under suspicion of dengue, and two of them died.

The most affected are children with comorbidities, falcemics, and patients who have had dengue previously.

He pointed out that 5% of the patients may have affectations in the liver, heart, and other internal organs.

They then called parents, reminding them that children do not go to emergencies alone and to seek assistance with the first symptoms: fever, vomiting, abdominal pain, and pain behind the eyes.

Actions in Santo Domingo East
Regarding the actions being carried out in Santo Domingo East to combat dengue fever, Mayor Manuel Jimenez said he met last week with the Minister of Public Health, Daniel Rivera, and Vice President Raquel Peña to carry out specific preventive operations.

He informed me that Los Tres Brazos and El Almirante were identified as the areas of greatest vulnerability. Still, he added La Grúa and Villa Liberación as other places where a fumigation day began this Monday.

The most recent report indicates 12,991 suspected cases of dengue fever in the country and eleven deaths associated with the disease since the beginning of this year, 2023.

Asked by the media about the current reality of the disease and whether the Government “makes up” the figures, the president was emphatic in pointing out that his Government has acted with “full transparency,” assuring that, as samples of evidence are the epidemiological bulletins reported by the Ministry of Public Health.

“Hiding statistics is dishonest, totally dishonest,” declared the president.

“If we have done anything with statistics, in general terms, it is to be transparent,” he added.

“With Covid they said the same thing and then they came and made an evaluation and even in the evaluation they gave us two more deaths than what we had reported,” said the head of state.

At the Robert Reid Cabral Hospital, there are 368 patients; of these, 363 show signs of alarm.

The Government said that, to date, 12,900 cases of dengue fever have been reported in the country this year, and at least 11 people have died from the disease.

The figures were released by the Minister of Public Health, Daniel Rivera, who added that due to the update of the cases this week, following Monday, the number of dengue cases will reach at least 14,000 affected.

The head of the public health agency pointed out that out of 100 patients treated for febrile symptoms, 16 are positive for dengue. At the same time, the rest are affected by other respiratory viruses, such as influenza.

In a meeting with the media, Rivera pointed out that the results of the weekend journey will begin to be seen in subsequent weeks.

“The reduction, even, from the hospital point of view, has been reducing the number of dengue cases; we currently have a positivity of 16 percent; two months ago we had a positivity of 35 percent, then it dropped to 20 percent, now we are at 16 and we expect that to continue reducing,” Rivera added.

“After the fumigation and elimination of hatcheries, we will see the reduction,” the minister assured.

MOTHERS AND NEWBORNS
On the other hand, the head of state reported that maternal mortality in the Dominican Republic had been reduced by 35% by 2021.

He pointed out that this progress is due to an improvement in the health services of his administration. Regarding neonatal care, he stated that 14 units for diagnosing cardiac pathologies in newborns and seven new neonatal intensive care units have been created.

Two people died after several days of dengue fever while being treated at health centers in Santiago and La Vega, while a minor died while being admitted to the regional hospital of Barahona.

One of the deceased is a two-year-old boy declared dead at the Arturo Grullon Regional Pediatric Hospital in Santiago.

The parents of the minor identified their son as Dilan de Jesus Corona Reyes, who resided in the Nuevo La Herradura neighborhood southwest of the city of Santiago.

The father, Maicol Gabriel Corona, alleges that there was medical negligence on the part of the personnel of the medical center.

“We took him on Monday morning, there what they did was that they bathed him and gave him acetaminophen and then they sent him home,” said the child’s father.

Corona explained that the following day, his son got sick again; they applied the same methodology and sent him home again, and finally, on Saturday, his son died.

Maria Reyes, the little boy’s mother, said she does not want another child to suffer all that her son sustained just because he did not receive adequate care.

“If my son had been admitted since Monday when we first took him, we would not be watching over him today,” Reyes explained. Yesterday, a commission from the Ministry of Public Health went to the family’s residence and verified that the family has to store water because they do not receive service.

La Vega

The other person who died from the disease was 48-year-old José García Valdez, who lived in the municipality of Constanza and had received medical attention since Saturday in a private center in La Vega.

Garcia Valdez had been in a private health center for several days after being referred from a center in Constanza.

Jose was known throughout the region for his participation in various festivals and local events, where he stood out for his characteristic Mexican character, which delighted those present with his humor and sympathy. In addition to his presence on festive occasions, García Valdez was also an active figure in the local politics of Constanza, contributing significantly to the municipality’s development.

Child dies in Barahona

Another child died of dengue fever at the Jaime Mota Regional Hospital, bringing to three the number of deaths due to this disease in that center. At the same time, 45 patients were admitted, and another ten were waiting in the emergency area.

The victim is a boy of 4 years and nine months, who was admitted at 4:00 in the afternoon of Sunday, but at 10:00 at night, he expired, confirmed to Listin Diario sources of the unit, which gives attention to the cases of dengue fever.

The child, who lived with his parents in the community of Villa Central and studied in the Basic School Anaima Tejeda, had several days with fever, vomiting, and diarrhea, for which he had been taken to the hospital on at least three occasions, but his admission was not ordered. Teachers, students, classmates, administrative staff of the Escuela Básica Anaima Tejeda, as well as the medical and nursing staff of the Hospital Regional Docente Universitario Jaime Mota, showed their sorrow for this new death, which joins that of a 12-year-old girl who died of the exact cause in that health center.

Meeting

Yesterday, Mayor Victor Emilio Fernandez, the director of the Regional Health Services, and Wilkin Feliz, the UASD Barahona Campus general director, met with the municipality’s health promoters, who were asked to get involved in preventive actions.

The meeting was held to eliminate the breeding sites of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which transmits the disease through its bite.

At a meeting convened by the Provincial Government last week with the mayor and the health sector, the medical director of the local hospital, Dr. María Elena Batista Rivas, complained about the two private health centers because they do not accept patients with dengue fever.

This situation causes the leading medical center here to be full of patients with the disease.

Dr. Batista Rivas said that, given this situation, she has increased the number of beds for the disease from 24 to 36, to which she will add 15 new beds starting this Monday, for a total of 51 beds exclusively for patients with this health condition.

The hospital’s medical director also informed that three new stretchers will be added to the ten existing ones in the emergency area for 13.

Sources of this hospital confirmed to Listín Diario that yesterday they had 45 patients admitted, both adults and pediatric, while in an emergency, more than ten people were waiting for a space to be admitted.

She explained that her husband began to feel ill on Friday the 20th of this month while he was singing in a local restaurant, presenting strong gastrointestinal pains, headaches, and fever, reasons for which he was admitted the following Saturday afternoon to the Titi Specialties Center of this city, being diagnosed with hemorrhagic dengue.

“From Titi, we took him at one o’clock in the morning yesterday to the La Concepción Clinic in La Vega. I took him by the hand to the Intensive Care Unit, but he died at three o’clock in the afternoon. At first, I thought he had the flu, and I prepared some tea for him, but he continued to be sick, so we admitted him to Titi,” she indicated.

She complained that, even though her husband had “good insurance,” the clinic in La Vega charged him RD$30,000 for less than one day he was hospitalized.

Valdez Araújo, 49, lived with his wife and three children in the Las Flores neighborhood. His coffin was buried this morning in the cemetery of El Cercado.

On the other hand, the director of the Dr. Pedro Antonio Céspedes Hospital here, Brianda Pujols Soriano, when consulted about the evolution of the dengue outbreak affecting this city and a large part of the national territory, said that there is a decrease in the number of cases arriving at the health center.

“So far this month, probable and confirmed cases of dengue have been reported day by day here at the Dr. Pedro Antonio Céspedes Municipal Hospital. At the beginning of October we saw incidences of confirmed cases of dengue, and we had rooms full, both of adults and children, but, thank God, this week we have seen that those cases have been dropping,” he said.

He indicated that up to this Monday, there were only five confirmed cases of the disease, which for months has had the Public Health authorities in check at the national level. He specified that 33 cases of dengue fever were admitted this month, and 55 probable cases.

Pujols Soriano urged the population to maintain the safety measures that have been recommended and not to resort to self-medication because some people administer to their relatives Acetylsalicylic Acid (Aspirin), which is contraindicated in cases of dengue.

According to the information available at the moment, with Mr. Valdez Araújo’s death, two people have lost their lives in this city due to dengue.

The other victim was Mr. Pablo Álvarez, 69 years old, who died on September 25 at the local hospital. He lived in the El 9 sector of Constanza.

The specialist said that the country is going through an outbreak of dengue fever that exceeds the hospital capacity due to the variable epidemiological behavior of the disease. She insisted on prevention measures.

“At the Robert Reid Cabral children’s hospital this week has passed with more than 60 cases every day; at the Hugo Mendoza, this Thursday I was told that there were almost 100, and the private centers alike,” he indicated.

Abreú, an infectologist and pediatrician, spoke in these terms in the program Reseñas, which is broadcast on Saturdays at 9 p.m. on ENTelevisión, channel 31.

She said that the increase in dengue cases started at the end of July, and since then, the hospitals have been “overcrowded.”

In particular, he indicated that the cases correspond primarily to children from the capital at the Robert Reid Cabral Hospital.

“Both public and private centers are full of people with suspected symptoms of dengue, mostly children, but it also affects the adult population, that is, there is no discrimination,” he added.

He attributed the rebound of the disease, which is endemic in tropical countries such as the Dominican Republic, to the fact that, in specific years, there is an increase in the number of cases due to favorable environmental conditions.

“All year round we have cases of dengue. But the disease has a type of variable behavior from the epidemiological point of view, there are years when cases increase and it is known that in periods of three to five years there can be outbreaks and epidemics, so that is what we are experiencing at the moment,” he explained.

“Neither waste of time nor self-medication.”

He explained that the disease symptoms usually appear after the mosquito bite after five to seven days.

He added that dengue fever enters its critical period on the fourth or seventh day after the onset of fever.

He recommended seeking medical assistance without wasting time in the presence of fever, headache, general malaise, muscle aches, pain behind the eyes, Abreu.

“In this critical period, which generally occurs 4 to 7 days after the onset of fever, is when complications usually occur and the patient who is going to have dengue with warning signs presents vomiting, abdominal pain, dizziness, weakness or drowsiness,” he said.

“In children it is very common that they present irritability, so the child is restless, tearful, does not eat, and the presence of vomiting are also warning signs,” he added.

He mainly alerted parents regarding symptoms in children such as a high fever that does not subside or subsides at times only with medication, not wanting to eat or drink liquids, vomiting, general weakness, or drowsiness.

“If the child does not ingest liquids or solids, it is necessary to go immediately, as soon as the ingestion begins to decrease. If the child urinates very little, it is also another alarm sign, it means that he/she is dehydrating or is already dehydrated, and that can increase mortality,” he warned.

He emphasized that there are medications that should not be used in dengue since even a prolonged administration of acetaminophen for fever can also cause complications.

Have an early hemogram

The pediatric infectologist remarked that it is not necessary to wait for 72 hours of fever to perform a hemogram on a child suspected of having dengue fever, as it used to be believed in the past.

She explained that the hemogram was already altered with one day of fever. Although it is not the definitive diagnosis of dengue, this analysis will give the physician an early idea of probable dengue.

Prevention campaigns should be permanent.

The Dominican Society of Infectious Diseases president pointed out that the country can never lower its guard regarding dengue prevention measures, which should be permanent.

Among these measures, she cited massive information and orientation campaigns so that the population takes into account the elimination of the breeding places of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, a vector of dengue, which also transmits the Zika and chikungunya viruses, from homes and the environment.

Likewise, fumigation programs, the use of mosquito nets for sleeping, and the use of repellents, among other actions.