Dengue plagues children in Bolivia

Dengue continues to kill in Bolivia.

The dead rose from the 18 reported a week ago to 29 nationwide.

Most of them, 25, were registered in Santa Cruz, the epicenter of the epidemic.

Six out of ten victims are children.

This is the second worst dengue outbreak in this Bolivian region since epidemiological records have been available.

The number of patients has also risen from 5,000 to more than 8,000.

Of them, a percentage can develop severe dengue, which causes internal bleeding and is particularly aggressive with children under 12 years of age.

The case fatality rate for this outbreak is 0.3%.

The local press brings chronicles of the difficulties that the parents of the sick little ones go through to obtain care in the Santa Cruz hospitals, which are collapsed due to the number of patients.

Some children died at the door of hospitals.

An increase in the number of beds in the main health centers has somewhat improved the situation, which remains critical.

The epidemic is affecting almost all the provinces of Santa Cruz and all the districts of the capital, Santa Cruz de la Sierra.

The outbreak is due to a very rainy beginning of summer, to the bad habits of residents in urban spaces, and to the lack of foresight by the authorities.

Dengue is transmitted by the

mosquito , which breeds on clean water surfaces.

The existence of canals and ditches, as well as the accumulation of junk in the patios and roofs of the houses, create the conditions for the insect to infest an area.

It is expected that the cleanup work that is being undertaken these days will have an effect in the short term.

Despite the fact that the disease is present everywhere in Santa Cruz, it is more virulent in the poorest areas, with fewer buildings and closer to the mountains, where, moreover, there are fewer economic possibilities to resort to the use of insecticides.

Several families with sick children ask for help through the media to cover the costs of intensive treatment, which is very expensive, as it requires daily blood transfusions and the supply of sophisticated corticosteroids.

The Single Health Service covers hospitalization in public hospitals, when there are beds, but it does not have the necessary medicines, which must then be provided by the patient's relatives.

Brigith Guayao declared on television that her little son "is still in critical condition."

“There is no improvement in my son, he is in therapy.

I no longer have money, every day they ask us for medicines and we no longer have anything to cover it with,” she said.

The population was less aware of these dramas in these days in which Bolivia celebrated the carnival.

The Santa Cruz party is famous, but this year it was marred by the epidemic, which discouraged many tourists from traveling to Santa Cruz, and for political reasons.

The region is in a chronic conflict with the leftist government of Luis Arce, due to ideological differences and mutual mistrust.

The situation became explosive when, last December, its governor Luis Fernando Camacho, one of the main enemies of the ruling party, was arrested for his participation in the protests that, in 2019, ended in the overthrow of Evo Morales.

Camacho is accused of plotting a coup.

He is now in the high security prison of Chonchocoro, in La Paz.

His adherents considered that carnival could not be celebrated while he was locked up.

Pressure from the main regional party to prevent public celebrations led to the resignation of several comparsas and queens, and dulled the carnival festivities.

In this context, the Minister of Health, Jeyson Auza;

the mayor of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Johnny Fernández, who has his own party but considers himself close to the ruling party, and the Governor's office, which Camacho continues to lead from prison, have coordinated only what is strictly necessary to face the onslaught of dengue.

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