Los Santos gets double health hit -hantavirus and dengue

Los Santos province is facing a double health whammy with the announcement Monday, August 27 of five new cases of hantavirus bringing the total of the rodent transmitted disease to 61.

Four days earlier health authorities confirmed 62 cases of mosquito-transmitted dengue.

Carlos Muñoz, regional coordinator of epidemiology said that the new hantavirus cases are four adults (between the ages of 21 and 55) and an 11-year-old boy. All are from the district of Tonosí.

Two have developed the cardiopulmonary syndrome due to hantavirus and the rest hantavirus fever.

He added that the other patient, aged 38, (with mechanical ventilation) had to be transferred to the Luis Chicho Fábrega hospital in Veraguas because there were no beds in the Las Tablas hospital or in the Gustavo Nelson Collado in Chitré.

Muñoz said that there are still four months left in 2018, so they could reach or surpass the 2014 figure, of  73 cases.  This year doctors have observed greater diligence in the diagnosis of the virus.

Dengue and zika
Half of the 62  confirmed cases of dengue are in the district of Los Santos, with the most La Villa. There are also cases in Las Tablas, Guararé, and Tonosí. The epidemiologist said that the number of sick people with dengue may be greater because many patients do not go to the health facilities.

Aedes hatcheries are still being found. Fumigation is being used but it only cuts the transmission by two or three days and then the new mosquito is born, they become infected and continue transmitting the virus. To date, in Los Santos, there are three cases of Zika virus and one of chikungunya.