El Salvador Hospitals
Overwhelmed By Respiratory Diseases
SAN SALVADOR (AFP) - Hospitals in El
Salvador have been overwhelmed by an
unexpected rise in respiratory diseases
including pneumonia and dengue fever, health
authorities said Wednesday.
"We've got our hospital network and
neighborhood health clinics working at full
capacity... with a huge increase these past
few weeks in patients with respiratory
ailments and possible dengue," Deputy Health
Minister Eduardo Espinoza told reporters.
The official said acute respiratory disease
has shot up in 11 of the country's 14
departments, totaling some 1.3 million cases
since the start of the year, including
26,546 cases of pneumonia and 6,584 cases of
dengue fever.
Espinoza said health authorities were
investigating another 15,893 cases of
suspected dengue across the densely
populated Central American country, adding
that one person has died from the disease so
far this year.
He said El Salvador's 30 main hospitals and
300 clinics have enough medicine to attend
the spike in respiratory ailments, but were
badly understaffed.
Dengue fever symptoms include high
temperatures and muscle aches. In extreme
cases, hemorrhaging and death can follow.
There is no known vaccine, but scientists
estimate to have one ready in about five
years.
Global warming has allowed the mosquitoes,
and hence dengue fever, to spread to areas
where the disease had not previously been
known.
Government health authorities together with
rescue units and army troops are fumigating
urban habitats of the dengue mosquito, and a
public awareness campaign for the disease is
under way in El Salvador.
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