Two children – a 9-year-old and an 11-year-old – who were infected with dengue, died while receiving medical attention at the Georgetown Public Hospital on Saturday.
The two children were receiving medical attention in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the medical facility, a health official confirmed.
Only a few days ago, Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony had reported that two children were critically ill and were receiving treatment. This was in addition to several other children who were being treated.
In addition, the Minister stated that several adults were also admitted to the hospital last week after they were infected with dengue.
On Friday, Advisor to the Health Minister, Dr Leslie Ramsammy stated that despite the rate of dengue cases in Guyana being above normal since March, it does not yet need to be classified as a crisis.
“From March to now, there has been an increasing number of cases per week. We had a little drop-off in June but basically, we are at an above-normal rate since March. In the Region of the Americas, dengue has been going up steadily year to year and since last year, there’s been an upward trend and so, Guyana has now joined that upward trend,” Ramsammy said, in an interview with this publication.
Thus far, in Guyana, the Health Ministry has conducted some 8000 tests for dengue across the country, with about 1800 of those returning positive.
While the number of hospitalisations is reportedly slightly higher than that of last year, Dr Ramsammy expressed his hope to maintain this over the last two weeks.
“We have a problem, not yet a crisis. But it’s something that people should be aware of,” Ramsammy said.
Dengue is a viral infection that spreads from mosquitoes to people. While most people who get dengue will not exhibit symptoms according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), for those who do, the most common symptoms are high fever, headaches, body aches, nausea and rashes.
Dr Ramsammy noted that since many persons who have dengue do not have symptoms, the number of cases in Guyana may be even higher than recorded.
In response to this growing issue, the Health Ministry has been conducting regular fogging exercises across communities and has had Environmental Health Officers visiting businesses and homes to treat water. For one, he urged Guyanese to store water in closed containers as open containers of water are common breeding sites for mosquitoes.
