DENGUE KILLS IN BOLIVIA, STRIPS THE HEALTH SYSTEM AND RAISES CLAIMS
43 people, most of them children, have died from dengue in Bolivia and more than 13,000 have been infected so far this year, especially in the tropical department of Santa Cruz (east), where the epidemic outbreak has once again put the naked the precariousness of the health system, raising claims from doctors and the population because they feel abandoned by the authorities.
In the city of Santa Cruz there is an ongoing health emergency with hospitals collapsed, fumigation is being carried out in some streets, houses and schools in suburban neighborhoods, “mingas” or community cleaning work is also carried out and there are mothers who pray at the doors from emergency centers for the recovery of their children.
According to the report of the Ministry of Health as of March 8, the number of deaths from dengue has risen to 43 and the cases add up to 13,470, of which close to 10,000 are in Santa Cruz, the most populated and economically strong region of the country, but whose health system is precarious with a deficit of hospital beds, equipment and 14,000 workers, according to doctors.
Some neighborhoods in Santa Cruz participated over the weekend in a collective cleaning day to eliminate disused containers, bottles and tires from the houses where the water used by the dengue-transmitting mosquito, the Aedes aegyptito reproduce.
Isabel Montenegro, 35, lives in District 12 and has cleaned the patio of her house and her street with her family and neighbors as part of the “minga” against dengue fever organized by the Santa Cruz mayor’s office, which has mobilized your staff and heavy equipment to remove tons of trash.
Her son Jared recently contracted dengue fever and had problems getting medical care.
“She gave it to my nine-yearold son three weeks ago. Seven days he was delicate and the hospitals were super saturated. I have insurance, but it was full, full. The doctor told me ‘I’ll give him IVS, but here sitting down,’ Isabel recalls, about that moment when her little one couldn’t be hospitalized properly, but she saved her life, ‘thank God’.
“I thought that I no longer counted it. I said this is the first time I have had a lethal disease and I decided to take care of myself a little more”, adds the boy.
Dengue is endemic to Santa Cruz, but Isabel believes that this year “it is attacking children more” because they have suffered from Covid-19 and have been left with sequelae and low defenses.
According to historical statistics, the worst epidemic outbreaks occurred in 2009 with almost 61,000 cases, and in 2020 with more than 110,000, although then the figure receded into the background amid the data released by the Covid 19 pandemic.
“Our children are dying for lack of help”
For the main leader of the health workers of Santa Cruz, the doctor Ruth Aguilera, the “epidemic shows the constant collapse of the health system” and the authorities of the central government, the opposition government and the government-affiliated mayor’s office are the responsible.