Despite statements by the Minister of Public health from Cuba, Jose Angel Portal Mirandabefore the National Assembly of People’s Power, in which denied that the island’s health system is collapsed because of denguethe official press was in charge of denying it within hours.
“There is no collapse in services, beyond any specific organizational problem that we may have in some of our institutions,” said Portal Miranda, according to the state channel Cubavisión Internacional.
The minister accused the “enemies of the Revolution” of spreading the opinion matrix that the island’s health system is collapsedan assumption that he described as “totally unreal”, despite the complaints, with images included, of people in overflowing hospitals.
Now the official newspaper Giron add arguments to the denialin a report from the Hospital General Professor Doctor Mario Muñoz Monroy, from Colón, in Matanzas. There, according to its director, Yailen Pérez Rosales, there are 253 real beds that offer services to children and adults, but the dengue outbreak in recent weeks “threatened the center’s care capacities, both in terms of logistics and human resources”says the text.
“In the month of June, 248 patients were admitted to Pediatrics and 311 to Medicine, for a total of 559. So far in July we have counted 315: 154 children and 161 adults”said the official.
“We are in an overexertion, because we are few and we have a very rigorous work scheme; but children must be given the required attention. There are many, many cases.”said Dr. Valenzuela Vera on her side.
In the care center, the theater where meetings and various activities are held had to be converted into an improvised pediatric roomwhile beds were placed in the corridorswith which the hospital currently has 298 beds in service.
Also it was necessary to create an annex room in a nearby Health Polytechnic, with another 60 bedsdivided in half between adults and minors.
“Regarding medicines, we have had and still have a deficit of some, not only in the Mario Muñoz Monroy hospital, but in the province and in the country: chlorosodium, for example. Some expendable supplies are also missing. All these, as they have been entering the province, are given priority to this hospital. The antibiotic, orally or intravenously, is available for those who require it. As for rehydration salts, which are lacking at the national level, the hospital has adopted the strategy of making its own,” explained the director.
According to the note, since the beginning of July the cases in Colón have skyrocketed. “Every year, on the same dates, an outbreak of this disease occurs. According to statements by the medical personnel in charge of combating it, none like this year’s”notes the report.
Despite this, according to health officials, so far there has only been one death from the disease, a 60-year-old man who already had complications when he arrived at Mario Muñoz.
“Because of the types of dengue that are circulating, we see patients who come with severe symptoms of the disease. Most are type A, the most benign of the serotypes, but many others are arriving with alarm symptoms: abdominal pain, vomiting, dehydration”commented Belmarys Valenzuela Vera, first degree specialist in Pediatrics.
Andrés Lama Acevedo, deputy director of the Provincial Health Directorate, assured that the causes of such an aggressive outbreak are due to “having a population that has had Covid, many with symptoms and others not, and a dengue that is inserted in a patient who suffered Covid is complicated; in addition to an antibacterial campaign that is dented by the lack of fuel and insecticide “.
Another problem in the care center is the lack of mosquito nets to isolate admitted patients and protect companions. “In the Medicine room, located on the third floor of the Mario Muñoz Monroy, patients do not have this protection and as is logical, it must be ensured that this condition is not prolonged over time,” he points out. Giron.
Another example: the Pediatric Hospital of Centro Habana, one of the most important in the capital, reported on Thursday in its twitter profile: “With the increase in dengue cases, our hospital set up an alternative location for children with warning signsguaranteeing quality medical attention, while waiting for his transfer to another hospital”.
According to Carilda Peña García, Deputy Minister of Public Health in Cuba, the incidence rate of dengue the previous week in the country was 19.7% per 100,000 inhabitantsalthough above that figure are Holguín, Camagüey, Pinar del Río, Santiago de Cuba, Villa Clara, Matanzas and Sancti Spíritus.
This week Paquito González Cueto Pediatric Hospital, in Cienfuegos, where a week ago a seven-year-old girl died dengue victim, reported the death of a second minorin this case 16 years.
And according to local health authorities, quoted by the official newspaper Escambray, more than 50 patients suspected of having dengue arrive every day at hospitals in the province of Sancti Spírituswhere the total number of people with nonspecific febrile symptoms amounts to 1,200.
According to the state media, several patients have presented themselves at hospitals with serious symptoms and have even “been on the verge of death.” Escambray does not specify the exact number of patients in these conditions.
The health institutions for the admission of suspected dengue patients are the Camilo Cienfuegos Hospital and the Provincial Pediatric Hospital. There they take advantage of the adaptations of their structures made during the worst stage of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the municipalities furthest from the main city, the care centers that were used to admit patients with coronavirus are also adapted.
“There are no resources even for a week of intensive fumigation against Aedes Aegypti,” says the Minister of Public Health, @japortalmiranda while dengue increases in #Cuba. Why don’t they stop the construction of hotels for the military elite? You will see how there are resources. pic.twitter.com/ASucLCJCIZ
– Rolando Naples (@RNapoles) July 22, 2022
Nevertheless, According to the minister, 2022 is not the worst year with respect to the number of dengue patients, since the infestation rate is below other more critical periods. Cubans have just found out about this, because the details of the problem have never been officially disclosed like now.
Likewise, Portal Miranda pointed out before the National Assembly that “we are not going to have the resources that we had under normal conditions. Today the population is saying: ‘why don’t they fumigate me?’ The resources required for a week of intensive work in the country are significant figures of fuel, insecticide, men, which we are not going to be able to do at this time.”