Dengue ravages Peru…

YAHOO

Two months after cyclonic downpours flooded the town of Catacaos in northern Peru, dozens of inhabitants lie sick and dying of dengue, a disease carried by mosquitos attracted by stagnant water.

Near the border with Ecuador, Peru’s Piura region is battling a new health crisis even as the South American country is still recovering from the world’s highest reported Covid-19 death rate.

This time it is an epidemic of dengue, a viral disease with symptoms ranging from fever, headache and joint pain to bleeding, organ failure and sometimes, death.

The virus is carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito that lays its eggs in standing water, of which there is a lot in Piura since cyclone Yaku hit northern Peru in March.

Dozens of people were killed and thousands affected as rivers burst their banks, destroying homes and infrastructure.

Half of the Piura region’s 416 clinics were damaged by the cyclone that also paralyzed the local economy as thousands lost their ability to survive from informal jobs.

Maria Francisca Sosa, 45, is one of many taking care of ailing relatives at home amid skyrocketing infections and overwhelmed public health care facilities in scenes reminiscent of the coronavirus epidemic.

Her father Jose Luciano, 93, is fighting a dengue infection.

“It hit him so hard that he couldn’t even stand anymore. Once, he was so sick that we thought he was going to die,” Sosa told AFP as she wiped her father’s sweaty forehead in the shanty they share with five other people.

With public health facilities overwhelmed, the family was forced to take out a loan to pay for a private doctor and medicine to treat the old man’s symptoms. There is no cure for dengue.

– ‘Lost control’ –

By June 13, Piura had reported 82 dengue deaths — including 11 children — and more than 44,000 infections since the start of 2023, said the region’s rights ombudsman Cesar Orrego.

This was about a third of the national toll of 248 deaths and more than 146,000 infections.

“We have lost control” of the epidemic, vector-borne diseases expert Valerie Paz-Soldan of the Cayetano Heredia University in Lima told AFP.

On Thursday, Peru’s health minister resigned over her handling of the crisis.

Most of Piura’s 1.8 million inhabitants live along the coast.

In Catacaos, an agricultural area, Yaku turned roads into rivers, destroyed the drinking water and sewerage systems, and ruined mango, grape and rice crops.

Water accumulated in open tanks, hollows and containers, multiplying mosquito breeding grounds. In the heart of Catacaos, the football field is still water-logged.