Panama losing war on dengue

PANAMA is losing the battle to overcome the dengue epidemic declared on December 30.

The warning comes from the National Director of Health, Ministry of Health (MoH), Carlos Galvez.

He added that the situation in Panama is similar to that experienced in the rest of Central America.
So far the difference is that health facilities have not been saturated, as in other countries in the region.
Health officials declared a dengue epidemic when the figure rose to 3.124 cases, of which nine were severe and two people had died.
Meanwhile, the latest report says the MoH Epidemiology department there are 3,232 cases of dengue -five deaths were recorded in 2013.
In the first week of January 221 cases and one death have been reported.
Reports of the Pan American Health Organization show that in Central America in the penultimate week of last year, there were 418,244 cases of dengue, of which 23 761 were severe  and 155 people died.