Medical groups, including MSF, are working to prevent the spread and progression of dengue cases in Honduras, where the disease has been declared a national health emergency.
To meet this challenge Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is supporting the Honduran Ministry of Health with human resources, medicines, and medical supplies to alleviate the burden on hospitals in four municipalities in the north of the country.
Dengue (break-bone fever) is a viral infection that spreads from mosquitoes to people. It is more common in tropical and subtropical climates. Dengue is an arbovirosis caused by a flavivirus, which comprises four genetically and antigenically related viruses.
Some dengue symptoms are similar to flu. They include:
- a high temperature
- a severe headache
- pain behind your eyes
- muscle and joint pain
- feeling or being sick
- swollen glands
- a blotchy rash made up of flat or slightly raised spots – this can affect large areas of your body
Some people get a more severe type of dengue a few days after they first started feeling ill.
The Americas have experienced substantially increased dengue morbidity and mortality in the recent decades, with a concentration of cases in Honduras.
In June, the Honduran Ministry of Health declared a national health emergency. To date, authorities have reported more than 110,000 positive cases of dengue and more than 115 suspected deaths from the disease, mostly paediatric cases. Some hospitals in the department of Cortés have been overwhelmed with new cases arriving daily.
To alleviate overcrowding in hospitals, MSF is providing medical personnel, nurses, and nursing assistants in different stabilization centres in the municipalities of Puerto Cortés, Santa Cruz de Yojoa, and Villanueva.
The aim is to prevent mild dengue cases from progressing to severe cases that require hospitalization.
The medical humanitarian organization has also donated materials such as stretchers, infusion pumps, lecterns, and ultrasound scanners, among other items, to reinforce the care of those admitted.
“What we are looking for is to reinforce the stabilization centers and their opening hours, so that milder cases of dengue can be attended 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” explains Maritza Regardiz, MSF medical activities manager in San Pedro Sula.
Regardiz adds: “In these centers, oral and intravenous medication is provided to prevent progression to severe dengue.”
In addition, MSF continues to work with the Metropolitan Health Region of Cortés and the Health Region of San Pedro Sula providing vehicles to support preventive activities. Since February to date, MSF has been working on spraying (thermal fogging) and accompanying the health personnel to eliminate mosquito breeding sites in the most remote and difficult communities to access.
