Family members say they do not believe the number of cases has decreased. On the contrary, they say that they know of more and more children with symptoms; they also say that spaces and beds in hospitals are scarce.

Johanna Santos, the grandmother of a nine-month-old baby, was waiting for news about her grandson outside the Hugo Mendoza Pediatric Hospital in Santo Domingo Norte after being admitted for several days with suspected dengue fever.

“Don’t pay any attention to the fact that dengue is decreasing. Dengue is ending; it is not decreasing at all. That is a lie,” said the lady. She insisted that there were no more beds available at the hospital due to the number of children hospitalized.

According to a hospital spokesman, yesterday morning, 82 patients remained in the center, which was at maximum capacity.

No beds

During the last few weeks, the number of patients in the hospitals continues to be alarming, while several health centers are at maximum capacity, and the lack of beds to attend to the infants is evident, according to parents.

Yoleidy Suarez, mother of a two-year-old boy admitted to the Robert Reid Cabral Children’s Hospital with dengue fever, indicated that although her little boy has received good care, she says that in the observation area, there are no beds.

“Upstairs (in internment) everything is fine, but downstairs, in observation, there are three and four children in a single bed,” Suarez said.

This information was corroborated by other people such as Maritza Rodriguez, aunt of a 14-year-old boy with the same disease, who assured that the emergency area has remained full.

Outside the Hugo Mendoza Hospital, several parents were waiting for news of their relatives admitted or attended by the Emergency Department. They indicated that the wards of the health center were also full of parents with their children.

“You can’t even get in here,” exclaimed a mother who came with her little girl who has sickle cell disease (sickle cell patient), referring to the fact that the place was overcrowded and that she would have to go to another health center.

Robert Reid

At the Robert Reid Cabral Hospital, in the morning hours, 33 patients had been admitted with symptoms of dengue fever.

According to a spokesman for the health center, 69 patients were still in the ward with a possible diagnosis of the disease, while eight were confirmed.

In the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), the center kept a total of four children hospitalized, all of whom were stable.

Alarming symptoms

Among the warning signs for parents coming to children’s hospitals are fever, vomiting, headache, and body aches, among other symptoms.

In addition to these febrile symptoms, children come to the centers with signs of respiratory viruses such as pneumonia or bronchopneumonia.

Dr. Griselys Alcántara pointed out that patients infected by the virus transmitted by the bite of the Aedes aegypti mosquito need special treatment and constant supervision.

“A person affected by dengue requires 24-hour supervision, due to the fact that it is an unpredictable disease that does not represent a danger now, and after half an hour it worsens,” Alcántara said.

At the Unión Médica del Norte clinic, where she directs the intensive care area, they maintain surveillance of patients with shifts of up to 24 hours.

Margarita Santana, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the Unión Médica, added that the treatment for this virus is “totally exhausting.”

“The truth is that I don’t think there is a pediatrician in the public or private sector who is not exhausted, due to the great demand,” she said.

In addition to the large number of suspected cases of dengue, which so far this year exceeds 14,000, there are also patients with other conditions that present themselves in the emergency room.

Statistics show that this center is attending about 300 children with febrile processes in the pediatric area, of which an average of 18 cases are positive for the disease. To date, the Unión Médica has treated 854 probable dengue fever patients.

Baby worsened due to lack of timely care.
At the door of the Emergency Room of the Hugo Mendoza Hospital, Kelcy Zabala was accompanied by her parents on her way to the cafeteria to have a quick snack since her nine-month-old baby has been in the Intensive Care Unit for two days with a positive diagnosis of dengue.

The new mother said that her situation worsened because she took him to a private clinic in Santo Domingo East, and the answer she received was to treat him with acetaminophen at home because the clinic was full. “They bounced us from the clinic, and the baby got worse,” she said.

This was the reason why they went to Hugo Mendoza, where they already had to give him a platelet transfusion because of the low level he presented.

“Here the treatment has been very good,” she added.

This Thursday, the emergency room of the health center looked more evident than on previous occasions, with only about twenty children waiting, when in the past days, there were more than 70. In the case of Robert Reid, this Thursday, there were 67 children admitted and four in intensive care.

Tests do not need an indication.
Diario Libre visited branches of private clinical laboratories to observe the demand for serological and molecular tests for dengue diagnosis.

“It is not necessary to have an indication. For antigen tests it is recommended that the patient has at least three days of fever. The PCR tests are more specialized tests that are normally done if requested by the physician,” responded a collaborator of the Amadita Laboratory.

This is the opinion of the international expert Javier Marin, director for Latin America of Healthcare of Llorente y Cuenca (LLYC) when he was interviewed during a visit to the editorial office of Listin Diario.

The specialist emphasized that the control of health conditions affecting the population is not only the responsibility of the State and that service companies, clinics, pharmaceutical companies, laboratories, and diagnostic centers must play a more empowering role in the health care of the population.

Marín was in the country participating as a speaker at the congress “Innovation, Trends and Challenges: where we must move,” held last weekend by the Association of Representatives, Agents and Pharmaceutical Producers, Inc (ARAPF).

He understands that companies must stop considering only suppliers and start getting more involved in society’s health care.

Effective communication

With dengue, Marín said that if companies get involved and work directly with the State, there would be better results in prevention and response and that effective communication is fundamental because, many times, the aggravation of cases of a particular disease occurs mainly because people confuse the symptoms and arrive late to the health system.

He explained that in the activity organized by ARAPF, he explained how communication can contribute to improving the reasoning of companies’ impact in improving health in each country.

He said that the sustainability of health systems must be considered.

He said that sometimes it is thought that this sustainability is the responsibility of the State, without understanding that the companies involved in the sector cannot be seen only as suppliers and that the individual himself assumes a more empowered role in health care.

He pointed out that at LLYC, they study the challenges facing healthcare systems. He said that governments must establish processes to monitor what is happening and, above all, to know what the population is feeling, to analyze volumes of data, and to take immediate action.

He emphasized that social networks are of great importance in monitoring because people express themselves without filters, and they make it possible to understand what is happening in some regions of the country and about specific health conditions, including what is happening with the high incidence of non-communicable diseases.

The denunciation was made by the Technical Cabinet, whose spokesperson was the former Minister of Health, Rafael Sánchez Cárdenas, who expressed that the Government manipulates the epidemiological bulletins, added to an absence of orientation campaign to deal with the disease and a notorious insensitivity of its officials.

“President, this is not about some methodological error, at the same time we share the criterion that these facts are totally dishonest and that they call into question the touted transparency,” expressed Sánchez Cárdenas, in the company of other PLD leaders.

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.