Woman from Southern Belize Dies after Contracting Dengue
Jazmin Ogaldez
The family of a woman from southern Belize is claiming that a loved one died due to dengue. An outbreak was detected months ago and the number of cases continues to go up in the districts of Orange Walk, Cayo and Stann Creek. But the Ministry of Health says that Jazmin Ogaldez had a pre-existing condition and her health deteriorated rapidly. Ogaldez was rushed to the Southern Regional Hospital and had to be stabilized before she was airlifted to Belize City; she later died at the K.H.M.H. while receiving treatment. Director of Health Services, Doctor Marvin Manzanero says that the ministry has received information on the case and they are investigating whether the cause of death is in fact dengue. There is not yet any official death due to dengue.
Marvin Manzanero
Dr. Marvin Manzanero, Director of Health Services
“I don’t know of a confirmed death, but I do know of a patient that was transferred from Southern Regional Hospital to Karl Heusner with the presumptive diagnosis of dengue, and I believe she had an underlying disease peg to the dengue. But I don’t know that that has been confirmed. I actually just got an email late last night to say that the patient that had been transferred is the one that died at the Karl Heusner. But I don’t have the full clinical report of that nor do I know if an autopsy was asked for or is being entertained.”
Duane Moody
“So it cannot be recorded as a death as a result of dengue so far?”
Dr. Marvin Manzanero
“It depends on what the death certificate will say because that becomes the official document. If the doctor is able to put that, then that becomes the diagnosis. So you can have all the clinical suspicion, lab exams that would have suggested it is dengue. If you don’t know, then you will have to rely on an autopsy to say whether it is a confirm dengue death or not. As I understand in this particular case, the patient deteriorated rather quickly in southern regional. There was an attempt to airlift her; we are not using BERT services right now there is some other complications in that regard. And when she was being initially transported, she had to be kept back couple of hours more to stabilize her. You don’t want to put anybody up in the air and then it becomes complicated up in the air. She was finally airlifted I believe after one o’clock. So that is also part of the process. You can’t transfer a patient that is not stable or you try to put the person in the best condition before you airlift them.”
