The first death due to the dengue epidemic that rages in Guadeloupe from and in the North Islands (Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy) was announced Wednesday February 19 by the prefecture of Guadeloupe and the Regional Health Agency.
A patient died on February 8 in Paris but the direct link with dengue has just been established after an investigation, according to a joint press release from the prefecture and the ARS. " The collegial concertation meeting of infectiologists classified the death as directly linked to dengue, " said the press release.
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A viral infection transmitted by mosquitoes in tropical and subtropical areas around the world, dengue fever has experienced accelerated development in recent years. It causes flu-like syndrome, sometimes with fatal complications.
The deceased patient was a 75-year-old woman, " regularly staying in Saint-Martin ", who had been medically treated at the Marigot hospital on February 6 " for deterioration of the general condition ". She was evacuated a few hours later at the Pointe-à-Pitre teaching hospital in Guadeloupe, " taking into account the unfavorable development in a context notably of a diagnosis of biologically confirmed dengue ". Evacuated to the Paul Brousse hospital in Paris to undergo “ potentially a transplant act ”, the patient finally died on February 8.
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Prefecture and ARS remind that " dengue is a disease that can kill " and encourage the population to protect themselves from mosquito bites and against the proliferation of mosquito vectors " aedes aegypti ".
A first death linked to dengue fever has already been announced in Martinique in early February, as part of the epidemic in progress in this territory since July 2019.