As we told you last night - the Dengue threat facing Belize this year, could loom just as large as COVID-19 from a public health perspective. That's because after a record number of confirmed cases and 10 deaths in 2019…2020 started off with an even greater number of cases locally and regionally.
But, then, the quarantine lockdown happened and everybody stayed home, which greatly slowed transmission of the dengue virus. But now, as the rainy season approaches and quarantine measures are being rolled back - the threat is real and present.
And, just like COVID, those at greatest risk are the ones with underlying health issues. The Ministry's Director of Operations told us about last year's deaths due to dengue:
Kim Bautista, Chief of Operations, MOH
"One of the things with those deaths, I think you saw many patients with underlying conditions whether they were diabetics, hypertensive patients, we even had cancer patients, and many of these persons actually seeking healthcare until the very last when they were in a critical state. I believe it was at the end of February PAHO gave a regional advisory indicating that the region was reporting two to three times more dengue cases for the same period as compared to 2019. For the first two months of the year we actually had an elevated number of cases. But the recent trend over the past 8 weeks has shown a decline which coincides with the period where we had the lockdown through the state of emergency."
"We had a decline in cases more than likely attributed to the restrictions of movement, persons being at home and things of that sort. With the borders being closed that has actually helped quite a bit in keeping the number of cases down in the past 8 weeks. While we are seeing cases in the Corozal and the Orange Walk districts primarily, those two districts account for 66% of the cases in the country."
There were 8,1,41 cases of dengue confirmed in Belize last year.
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