By NewsDesk @infectiousdiseasenews
Dengue fever
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies reports in a recent update that between January and 2 May 2020, a total of 42,710 laboratory confirmed cases of dengue were registered in Paraguay.
This recent outbreak has led to the death of 64 people across 19 of the country’s health regions, mainly in the departments of Asunción and Central departments. A total of 175,082 suspected cases were reported – 70.74 per cent in the Metropolitan Area consisting of Central (111,104) and Asunción (12,750).
Three serotypes (DEN-1, DEN-2 and DEN-4) are currently in circulation across the country, although the most commonly identified at the country level is the DEN-4 serotype.
The number of dengue cases reported dropped in the last week of April (week 18) compared to initial weekly epidemiological statistical numbers for arbovirus.
This could be attributed to the current COVID-19 context, considering that government recommendations and prevention measures suggest people refrain from going to health centres or referral hospitals if they present symptoms and instead use the hotline established for reporting these symptoms.
Measles vaccines
Some 100,000 doses of MMR vaccine have arrived in the country and are being distributed to the eighteen health regions. Vaccines will be available in all vaccines under the Ministry of Health. The biological protects against measles, mumps and rubella.
“This vaccine is extremely important to prevent measles,” says Dr. Soraya Araya, director of the Expanded Program on Immunizations (PAI). She warns that border countries such as Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia are experiencing measles outbreaks, even during the Covid-19 pandemic, so it is crucial to be immunized, considering that Paraguay has not registered measles cases for more than 21 years.
The measles is within the regular vaccination schedule. The first dose is applied at one year of age and subsequently a second dose at 4 years of age. In this context, the infectious pediatrician asks parents to check their child’s vaccination record.
He points out that children older than 4 years with delayed immunization schedules should go to the vaccinations to receive the vaccine. The SPR dose will be applied to children from 4 to 10 years old and the SR dose to children over 10 years old.
COVID-19
Health Minister Dr. Julio Mazzoleni reported that the coronavirus case count has risen to 829, after 41 new cases were registered. He also announced the recovery of 11 patients.
Nationally, 11 fatalities have been reported.
This week is crucial for the National Government to analyze the technical evaluation of the implementation of smart quarantine in its phase 1 and depending on the result obtained, it will advance to phase 2 or return to smart quarantine from next Monday 25 of May.
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