St. Benedict’s Clinic in Tegucigalpa, Honduras is desperate for additional funding for medications as staff continue to treat an average of 200 patients a day while the dengue epidemic worsens.
Two days ago government sources in Honduras reported the deaths of six more people due to dengue, a disease that has claimed at least 50 victims so far this year.
According to a report by the National Commission on Certification of Dengue, five of the victims were between 15 and 21 years old and lived in Tegucigalpa.
During 2010 the deaths of 43 people have been confirmed, but another 10 deaths were reported, to be certified in the coming days.
According to official figures, the hospitals have received 33,628 cases of dengue fever and about 7,000 hemorrhagic variant suspects.
Sources at St. Benedict’s Clinic believe that the Honduran government is under-reporting the number of cases and deaths and that the actual numbers are higher. The epidemic is receiving little or no coverage in the international press. We are saddened to learn that employees of St. Benedict’s have lost family members to the disease.
According to the World Health Organization, Dengue is transmitted by the bite of an Aedes mosquito infected with any one of the four dengue viruses. Symptoms appear 3—14 days after the infective bite. Dengue fever affects infants, young children and adults.
Symptoms range from a mild fever, to incapacitating high fever, with severe headache, pain behind the eyes, muscle and joint pain, and rash. There are no specific antiviral medicines for dengue. Doctors at St. Benedict’s treat dengue with acetaminophen, IV fluids for hydration and antibiotics to prevent secondary infections.
Dengue haemorrhagic fever (fever, abdominal pain, vomiting, bleeding) is a potentially lethal complication, affecting mainly children.
The situation looks to get worse before it get’s better. In the coming months, when the rains will be more constant and intense, there will be more breeding grounds for the mosquitos that carry the disease.
The Honduran government has developed a program of spraying in 20 areas of the capital and has urged citizens to eliminate as many sources of standing water as possible.
There is a series of photos taken at St. Benedicts on July 26 at: http://www.thepassionists.org/St_Benedicts_Clinic.html
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