Is there a dengue outbreak in the country?
There are close to three hundred and fifty clinical cases of dengue fever with upwards of forty hemorrhagic cases diagnosed over the past few weeks. Most of the cases have been detected in the Belize and Cayo Districts. That’s the latest information from the Ministry of Health. The Ministry also claims it is spraying vulnerable areas but is asking the public to keep the environment free of breeding sites. News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports from Belmopan.
Isani Cayetano, Reporting
The past few weeks have seen an increase in the number of cases of dengue fever in the Belize and Cayo Districts. But is there an outbreak? Well, the Ministry of Health’s hierarchy thinks there is, but other health officials are not convinced that the rash can be considered an epidemic. A meeting was held this morning with ministry officials to determine an approach to the current situation. Present was the Director of Environmental Health Programs, Dr. Jose Antonio Marenco.
Dr. Jose Antonio Marenco, Dir of Environmental Health Programs
“There’s no such thing as an outbreak throughout the country of Belize. We do have increased number of cases in Cayo District and Belize District. So this is basically the situation, the other districts are pretty much on what is expected for this time of the year. So the other reason why perhaps we are meeting this time is because we know about the situation in the other countries in Central America that are experiencing very serious dengue outbreaks there so we want to be kinda a bit ahead before this thing gets to be out of control.”
Despite the spraying of mosquitoes, which also include the Aedes aegypti that carries the life-threatening virus, during the rainy season Marenco says a meeting was necessary in order to bring health officials up to par with what is happening in both municipalities.
Dr. Jose Antonio Marenco
jose antonio marenco
“It’s just a working meeting where people from different areas noh call it epidemiology, health education, medical care, vector control and environment and laboratory get together to discuss this particular issue; in our case dengue because each one of this area plays important role in handling the situation of dengue. So that’s why we are here to, the idea, part of our agenda was to look at the regional situation around Belize, see where we are in Belize at this point of the year. What are we doing and where we’re going from here.”
Isani Cayetano
“In terms of the number of people who have contracted dengue either at its initial stage or dengue hemorrhagic fever what are we looking at because there seems to be several cases that have been made public in terms of people who are catching dengue. Speak to us on that please.”
Dr. Jose Antonio Marenco
“I think dengue over time in Belize throughout many years, classical dengue as we call it, has been occurring there noh, with a considerable level of underreporting of those cases. Many people simply have gotten a viral illness and then perhaps it was dengue and didn’t know it was dengue so there is a pool of people out there who had contracted dengue in the past that are at this point are more susceptible to developing dengue hemorrhagic type. Having said that it is clear, everybody knows, last year we did have an increase number; we had an outbreak in Belize as it was in many countries in Latin America. And so what we are seeing now is an increased number of dengue in two important cities in the country and of course you know the likelihood and the possibilities for dengue hemorrhagic is greater.”
According to the Ministry of Health it is normal for various communities to experience an increase in dengue fever during the rainy season. Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.
Dengue symptoms are characterized by high fever, headache, pain behind the eyes, joints and muscles. If you have these symptoms you are advised to seek medical attention.
