Re: Curacao - Aruba - More dengue cases this year
ARUBA (a population of just over 100,000 inhabitants)
Former Health Minister Booshi Wever comments on dengue cases
Monday, 12 September 2011 01:11
In the last press conference, Minister of Public Health Richard Visser, as well as authorities from the Department of Health, brought forward alarming information about the dengue situation. "A few weeks ago, I already expressed that the dengue cases were increasing drastically and that several people have died from the consequences.
At this occasion I was made out to not be telling the truth. Well, here we have the proof," former health minister, currently an independent Member of Parliament Booshi Wever said. He said, "Let's analyze the numbers a moment.
The minister said that 60% of our population has been affected by dengue in the past year. This means that 66 thousand people had dengue!
It was also said by Dr. Salazar that of every ten people who have had dengue, six can get hemorrhagic dengue. Hemorrhagic dengue can have serious consequences, including death."
Wever concluded that according to Dr. Visser's statement and statistics, 44 thousand (6/10 of 66 thousand) people are at risk of getting hemorrhagic dengue. "According to scientific data, the prognosis of mortality from hemorrhagic dengue varies between 2.5. and 5%, but if a patient develops "shock", then mortality increases to between 12 and up to 44%. If a patient is well taken care of and treated, the chances of dying are less than 1%.
Considering that this is being well attended to, and I have no doubts about this being the case, this means that 400 people (1% of 40 thousand) have a great chance of dying from the consequences of dengue complications.
This number is very high, particularly if we take into consideration that we are still in the rainy season, thus I don't understand how it is possible that it is not until now that the minister is going to restart fumigation actions," he explained.
In March of this year, Minister Visser in a press conference announced that by 2012 Aruba would be dengue-free and the results of a study that was to be done would be in by September 2011, Wever said, and added that it was all talk and that the GKMB will not be doing anything new.
The Member of Parliament said that there were at least three deaths in eight months and there were 60 cases of dengue in August only.
"It is important to remark that if the statistics are correct, we cannot talk of a simple "outbreak", but it is a catastrophe and the minister should be made responsible for his negligence," he stated. "The community should be alert," he concluded.
Aruba Herald
Het kan een aantal weken duren totdat u van een eerste [ dengue] infectie hersteld bent. Daarna bent u levenslang ongevoelig (immuun) voor één type denguevirus. Wanneer u daarna met een ander type denguevirus besmet wordt, is de kans op een ernstig beloop (dengue hemorragische koorts) veel groter.
Iemand met dengue hemorragische koorts moet in een ziekenhuis worden opgenomen. Zonder behandeling is er 10% kans op een dodelijke afloop; met de juiste behandeling is deze kans 1 tot 2%.
Artsennet
Meer over Dengue (Knokkelkoorts)