2023-06-17 08:37:05
AFP
In the cemeteries, we mourn the children: a dengue fever epidemic ravages Peru
It’s been two months since the soccer field was flooded, but greenish water still stagnates there. In the houses around, the sick are bedridden, and in the cemeteries, children are mourning. In northern Peru, a dengue fever epidemic is wreaking havoc.Near the border with Ecuador, the desert region of Piura is facing its worst health crisis since the pandemic, which hoisted Peru to the top of the country at the higher mortality. In question, this time, the mosquito transmitting dengue fever, attracted by the heavy rains caused by Hurricane Yaku which hit the region in March. As of June 13, “we have 82 dead”, including 11 children, and more than 44,000 people infected in the department of Piura, assured the defender of the people César Orrego. These figures represent just over a third of the deaths (248) and infections (146,588) recorded nationally. Health Minister Rosa Gutierrez resigned on Thursday evening following criticism from parliament over the handling of the crisis. Since the reappearance of dengue fever in the country in 1990, this is the “strongest” epidemic wave, underlines Valerie Paz Soldan, an expert in infectious diseases from Cayetano Heredia University. The infection “has become uncontrollable”, she warns, saying she fears that the virus is circulating “all year round” in the country due to climate change and the El Niño weather phenomenon, which causes heavy rains. – ‘Little baby’ – In terms of dengue, Peru has the second highest mortality rate in Latin America, following Brazil, up 365% compared to the average of the last five years, according to the Organization Pan American Health Authority (PAHO). The coastal area of the department of Piura is home to the majority of the region’s 1.8 million inhabitants. In Catacaos, an agricultural district, dengue is ravaging homes with tin roofs. In one, Maria Francisca Sosa, 45, watches over her 93-year-old father. Slumped in a bed, an unfolded mosquito net by his side, the old man barely mutters when his daughter passes her hand over his forehead. Since the virus struck him down, we have had to help him as if he were a “little baby, to feed him (…), buy him diapers”, testifies this woman who lives with six other members of her family. family. One following another, all were affected by the virus. Faced with overcrowding in health centres, they had to go into debt to be able to consult a private doctor and buy medicine.- Influx of patients -Hurricane Yaku caused intense rains and floods. Drinking water networks and sewers have been damaged, as well as mango and rice crops. The water was stored in open tanks, which multiplied, despite the fumigation operations, the breeding grounds of the Aedes aegypti mosquito. In Catacaos, the football field is still waterlogged two months following the passage of the hurricane. Not far away, Teolinda Silva, 45, takes care of her son Gabriel, 27, bedridden and feverish. “Unfortunately I don’t have the money to take him to the hospital and have him seen. Right now I’m going through a tough time, there’s no work, there’s nothing” , she laments. This weekend, little FerMaria Ancajima was buried in Catacaos. Her condition suddenly worsened and she died shortly following being transferred to Lima. She was ten years old. Sullana hospital, north of Catacaos, is overwhelmed by the influx of patients. “We have a huge deficit in human resources, our first level of attention has collapsed and we lack equipment and medicines,” recognizes Luis Alfredo Espinoza Venegas, 44, one of the hospital center managers. bur-vel/ljc/sf/mr
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