Due to the national health emergency caused by an increase in dengue cases in Honduras, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is supporting the Honduran Ministry of Health with human resources, medicines, and medical supplies to alleviate the burden on hospitals in four municipalities in the north of the country.
In June, the Honduran Ministry of Health declared a national health emergency. To date, authorities have reported more than 110,000 positive cases of dengue and more than 115 suspected deaths from the disease, mostly pediatric cases. In the midst of this situation, some hospitals in the department of Cortés have been overwhelmed with new cases arriving daily.
What is dengue?
Dengue is a viral infection transmitted through the bite of infected mosquitoes. It is a communicable and neglected tropical disease mainly found in urban areas in warm, humid climates in Asia, the Caribbean, and Central and South America, but it is spreading to other areas including North America and eastern Africa as the effects of climate change drive transmission around the world. Today, dengue is one of the fastest-spreading diseases, with about half of the global population at risk. Learn more about dengue >>
To alleviate overcrowding in hospitals, MSF is providing medical personnel, nurses, and nursing assistants in different stabilization centers in the municipalities of Puerto Cortés, Santa Cruz de Yojoa, and Villanueva. The aim is to prevent mild dengue cases from progressing to severe cases that require hospitalization.
The medical humanitarian organization has also donated materials such as stretchers, infusion pumps, lecterns, and ultrasound scanners, among other items, to reinforce the care of those admitted.
“What we are looking for is to reinforce the stabilization centers and their opening hours, so that milder cases of dengue can be attended 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” says Maritza Regardiz, MSF medical activities manager in San Pedro Sula. “In these centers, oral and intravenous medication is provided to prevent progression to severe dengue.”
In San Pedro Sula, the MSF team is also working at Mario Catarino Rivas Hospital, including by hiring a pediatrician and donating stretchers, infusion pumps, lecterns, and computers. “This is to enable as many beds as possible specifically for pediatric patients,” Regardiz says. “In this way we will be able to reduce the hospital burden associated with dengue and allow patients with other diseases not to suffer the consequences of an epidemic, such as being forgotten or seeing their care diminished.”
In addition, MSF continues to work with the Metropolitan Health Region of Cortés and the Health Region of San Pedro Sula providing vehicles to support preventive activities. Since February to date, MSF has been working on spraying (thermal fogging) and accompanying the health personnel to eliminate mosquito breeding sites in the most remote and difficult communities to access.
In the coming weeks, MSF will continue to support these activities, along with epidemiological monitoring to help adapt the response to the needs of the authorities and the people of the region.
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