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.

This is established in a report presented by the Ministry of Public Health, where it collects data from epidemiological weeks 38 to 41.

It states that 63% of patients came late to seek medical attention after three to five days of symptom onset and that 24% requested care promptly.

These 16 most in-demand centers hospitalized more than 3,000 patients with dengue symptoms in the last month, not counting the number of cases treated in their emergency areas, which continue to receive a high demand for medical attention from patients with fever and other signs that lead to suspicion of the disease.

Among the health facilities that have admitted the most patients with dengue in the last month are the Hugo Mendoza Pediatric, with 632 hospitalized, of which 612 had warning signs, three of them severe; the Robert Reid Cabral with 368 patients and of these 363 present warning signs and the UCE Medical Center that has hospitalized 185 patients with warning signs.

There is also the Jaime Mota Hospital, with 175 patients hospitalized with warning signs; the Marcelino Vélez Santana, with 160 patients with these conditions; the Arturo Grullón, which reported in the last month about 111 patients with warning signs; and the Unión Médica Clinic with 101 patients in alarm conditions.

Other centers with the highest number of admissions are the Altagracia Clinic, the San Lorenzo de Los Mina Maternal and Child Hospital, the Ramón de Lara Air Force, the Santiago Metropolitan Hospital, the General de la Plaza de la Salud, Padre Fantino, the Boca Chica Municipal Hospital, Juan Pablo Pina and Vinicio Calventi. Pediatric hospitals are overwhelmed with dengue patients, says Infectious Diseases Society

WARNING SIGNS FOR DENGUE FEVER
Among the warning signs for dengue are fever, abdominal pain, vomiting, drowsiness, lack of appetite, and tiredness, which, according to specialists, the patient is beginning to deteriorate and requires immediate medical attention to avoid severity and death.

Meanwhile, following the order of the President of the Republic, extensive days of social mobilization against the mosquito that transmits dengue were carried out throughout the weekend, which involved government institutions and civil society in an attempt to curb the incidence of the epidemic that has caused the death of 11 children and some 13 thousand affected so far this year.

The day began early in the morning with fumigation, elimination of breeding sites, house-to-house visits, orientation, and chlorine delivery in areas with the highest disease incidence.

The vice-president of the Republic, Raquel Peña, began in West Santo Domingo together with the general director of Strategic and Special Projects of the Presidency, Roberto Ángel Salcedo, and the director of the National Health Service, Dr. Mario Lama, and other authorities.

There, Peña highlighted the reinforcement of prevention work throughout the country on the instructions of President Luis Abinader.

She urged the population to take preventive measures such as accumulating clean water where the transmitting mosquito grows. She also urged them to go to the hospitals where the health personnel are trained and have the necessary equipment to provide all the care they require.

“We are all going to fight together, to continue fighting dengue, and in this way, we will all come out successful, as we have done on other occasions,” emphasized Peña. Lama said: “We are going to fight once again this dengue work, we are going to stimulate the communities to eliminate the mosquito breeding sites.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Jesús Suardí, director of Area 4 of Health, informed that from 6:00 a.m., they started in sectors of the capital such as Ensanche Luperón, Capotillo, Villas Juana, Villa Consuelo, La Fe, Cristo Rey and others, where the brigades took the message about the urgency of eliminating the containers that accumulate water.

While in Santiago, the Minister of Public Health, Daniel Rivera, headed the operations in Cienfuegos, Santiago Oeste, Palmar Arriba, and the municipality of Villa González. He was accompanied by the Minister of Environment, Miguel Ceara Hatton, Governor Rosa Santos, the municipal League (LMD) president, and Vícto president D’Aza.

Rivera highlighted the excellent integration of the various institutions and the positive response of the population in the fight against the disease transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito and said he was confident that with the strengthening of preventive actions in the coming days, dengue cases and hospitalizations will decrease considerably.

“We do not want to compete for a number, but to save lives. We want to reduce the breeding sites, intervene in time, and that families help us to take children and adolescents to the doctor on time, especially to protect those between 10 and 19 years of age,” he said.

Santo Domingo, RD

After the violent boom of dengue fever in Dominican territory, with more than 12,000 reports since its beginning and 11 human losses so far this year, private laboratories, such as “Referencia”, have had a high demand of patients who come to these centers for laboratory tests to determine whether or not they have the viral disease.

LISTÍN DIARIO, during a tour made yesterday, verified the increase of this type of test when visiting two branches of ‘Referencia Laboratorio Clínico,’ one located on Francia Avenue, on the corner of Rosa Duarte Street and the other on Ortega y Gasset Avenue.

A customer service staff of the latter branch told this newspaper that the test to detect dengue is called NS1, while the one for antibodies consists of other types of tests called “Dengue IgG and InG.”

“There is an increase in dengue testing,” the employee stated while explaining, “Doctors monitor the disease with the hemogram, which measures the level of platelets.”

These clinical analyses are usually completed within a maximum period of 24 hours, according to the person consulted.

At the branch on Francia Avenue, the customer service staff also assured the increase of these laboratory tests: “Yes, there has been an increase,” they indicated.

WHAT DO THESE TESTS WORK FOR?
This newspaper consulted a specialist on the subject, who explained that after questioning a patient with suspected dengue, they are sent for laboratory or complementary tests, such as hemogram or abdominal tomography, since, based on the results, the patient may or may not be diagnosed with the disease.

“In the hemogram we see white blood cells and platelets. The hemogram describes other things, but for dengue cases that is the most important thing,” said the physician, who preferred anonymity.

Regarding the CT scan, he said, “It is to see internal organs, but especially the liver, because dengue affects the liver.”

The expert also referred to the IgM test since it can indicate whether the patient has dengue or not.

“In case it is positive, it indicates the phase in which the patient is. But, it is not recommended to do it on the first day of symptoms, because nothing comes out, only the hemogram,” he explained.

HOSPITAL LABORATORIES
The high demand for tests on this disease, which is transmitted by mosquito bites of the Aedes aegypti species, has been similar in some hospital laboratories in the capital.

For example, the Hospital Materno Infantil Santo Socorro has registered “a packet” of laboratory tests, as stated to this newspaper by a medical staff member in the Sample Collection department.

Meanwhile, at the Robert Reid Cabral Children’s Hospital, the situation has been similar after the high attendance of suspicious patients. Estefania Cruz admitted her four-year-old niece to the emergency area of this health center for presenting symptoms of dengue fever since last Wednesday 18.

The campaign will cover the entire territory, but priority will be given to the capital, Santo Domingo, as well as to the provinces of Santiago, Puerto Plata, Monseñor Nouel, La Romana, Barahona, San Cristóbal, Montecristi and San Pedro de Macorís, which concentrate the most significant number of contagions, as explained at a press conference by the officials who make up the recently created Cabinet of Action Against Dengue.

The participants in this operation are part of the institutions that make up the Emergency Operations Center (COE), whose director, General Juan Manuel Méndez, called on the population to support the work “to fumigate and eliminate mosquito breeding sites in tanks, tires and other containers which can accumulate clean water so that together we can frequently eliminate the breeding sites” of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, transmitter of dengue and other diseases such as chikungunya and zika.

For his part, the Minister of Public Health, Daniel Rivera, guaranteed that the country has “all the supplies, medicines and a solid national response capacity to control this endemic disease” amidst criticism from the political opposition for the alleged lack of action to control the outbreak.

Along the same lines, the director of the National Health Service, Mario Lama, stated the reinforcement of “human resources, medicines and tests” to diagnose the disease in hospitals, many of which have been overwhelmed in recent months by the number of people affected.

Public Health maintained the epidemiological alert on 24 May for dengue, an acute viral disease characterized by high fever, intense headache, muscle pain, gastrointestinal disorders, and rashes.

Perez Duran asked President Abinader to pay attention to the growing 0epidemic, about which he indicated the figures do not correspond to reality, so he asked to declare a state of emergency in the country due to increased cases.

“I am making a call to you, Mr. President (…), I understand that within 24 hours you should decree a state of emergency, where a campaign of fumigation, orientation, protocolization of the dengue fever that we have in front of us,” said the doctor.

The doctor’s daughter died on Friday last week after remaining in intensive care and being diagnosed with the disease transmitted by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito after being hospitalized since Wednesday morning.

He explained that the teenager arrived at the hospital “in a critical condition,” so she was immediately referred to the Intensive Care Unit.

“We as parents spared neither resources nor efforts to facilitate everything that was asked of us,” said the grieving father in an interview with Martina Espinal on the program Al Punto.

He indicated that, at first, they thought it was a classic dengue, but after she was intubated early Thursday morning, the infant became brain-dead at 5:00 p.m., indicating to her parents that it was too late.

The girl’s father said that the child’s platelets, which were at 266, reached 11 in just three days.

With a troubled expression, Perez narrated that they took the girl to receive medical attention since the first symptoms appeared on Sunday of that week. However, the pre-adolescent died days later.

“On Friday morning an attempt was made to connect her to a special dialysis machine, when the caveat was made that the girl was clinically dead, it was literally exploding her lungs, heart and kidneys. When she was connected to the machine, the girl died after two minutes, she went into irreversible arrest,” he said.

Relatives of affected children go from one center to another, searching for beds and locating the best doctors. According to official data, there is a slight decrease in hospitals that have been more saturated with patients, but the population indicates that they cannot find beds.

“I will ask for discharge from this clinic, if my daughter does not improve, will take her to another center,” said the mother of a teenager diagnosed with dengue.

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Situation
The Plaza de la Salud General Hospital had 29 patients admitted 12 hours ago; nine were waiting for beds in the emergency. This is the third hospital that has received the most patients with dengue fever. The Hugo Mendoza Pediatric Hospital has held first place. Yesterday afternoon, 82 minors were admitted; the emergency has a high demand. However, pediatricians insist that not everyone who comes to the emergency with a fever is dengue, as patients with influenza and other respiratory viruses have also increased.

The Robert Reid Cabral pediatric hospital had 58 minors admitted, while the Marcelino Velez Santana hospital reported 20. The Jaime Mota Hospital in Barahona had 20 admissions, and the Arturo Grullon Hospital had another 20 children. Dengue fever is also affected by the disease.

Warning signs
Firm and persistent abdominal pain; vomiting more than three in one hour, more than six in two hours; mucosal bleeding, mainly in the gums; edema; drowsy or irritable young children; hepatomegaly; hypotension (they stand up and get dizzy) and increased hematocrit, said Dr. Virgen Gomez, pediatric infectious disease specialist.

Symptoms
Dengue has symptoms that lead the family and the physician to think of dengue: the abrupt onset of fever, headache, body aches, vomiting and diarrhea, and rash.

Provinces
Some 25 provinces have presented more cases, with the municipality of Santo Domingo Norte having the highest incidence. This is why the Hugo Mendoza hospital authorities were forced to open more than 100 beds.

They have had up to 106 patients admitted. Santo Domingo, the National District, Barahona, La Vega, and San Cristobal have a high disease incidence.

The age groups that have been infected the most are 4 and 19 years old, but adults have also been infected, it has been proven.

It is an endemic disease. The virus is transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito.