Hundreds of families mourn in Peru as children die in dengue epidemic | Global expansion

In the narrow streets of Castile, a middle-class suburb of northern Piura, mourners shoulder their ivory coffins as neighbors bow and hold hands, peer out from doorways amid white streams. walked behind. Peru.

At the gates of San José de Tarbes, dozens of girls in gray skirts, white shirts and red ties waited for the party with white balloons and roses. It was a farewell to her schoolmate Priscilla Quispe, 7, who died of dengue at Santa Rosa Public Hospital last week.

In the school courtyard, amidst the stunned silence of students, staff and parents, a teacher paid tribute to a bright and caring girl.

Quispe was among the victims of dengue fever in Piura, the epicenter of Peru’s worst-ever mosquito-borne outbreak. Peru has recorded 137,539 dengue cases and at least 223 deaths, according to data released on Saturday, making it the country with the highest death rate from the virus in the Americas. Panamerican Health Organization National Center for Epidemiology, Disease Prevention and Control of Peru.

The city of Piura, of about 500,000 people, has been hit by heavy rains and floods in recent months, with more than 40,000 cases and 69 deaths this year, including at least 12 children. local health authorities.

In April and May the Cyclone Yaku Heavy rains hit northern Peru, and the floodwaters provided an ideal breeding ground. Aedes ahEgypt These include dengue-carrying mosquitoes, as well as Chikungunya and Zika, which are endemic in hot northern regions near the border with Ecuador.

“First day, [my daughter] I had a high fever and abdominal pain, and on the second and third day I had vomiting and diarrhea,” said 7-year-old Camilla, who is being treated in an emergency tent hospital built on the playground. Lillian Pissarro said. Because she is full of dengue patients. The patients were treated under a mosquito net by medical experts from the capital Lima.

Despite contingency plans for the dengue epidemic, “demand far outstrips supply,” Dr. Jennifer Quadros, a physician in the preventive and control unit of metaxenic and zoonotic diseases, told The Guardian. After the previous incident, the number of incidents had already doubled from 2017. boy Floods and landslides have ripped through Peru’s coast, killing more than 140 people and causing billions of pounds of damage.

The city’s public hospitals are overwhelmed, with beds available only for the most severe cases.

“We only accept dengue patients with warning signs such as bleeding, persistent abdominal pain, and persistent vomiting,” he said, working with two nurses to triage dozens of patients outside the maternity hospital. said Dr. Ludwig Zeta, 26, who was in the hospital. “We have many young people and many children.” He had not seen so many sick people since then. COVID pandemicPeru has one of the highest mortality rates in the world.

“In Piura, 30 percent of those infected are children,” said César Orrego, the region’s ombudsman. “Their cases can quickly become fatal, so they need a pediatrician.”

On the outskirts of the city, dozens of dengue patients have been forced to stay at home. Juana Aquino, 66, and her 9-year-old grandson, Abraham, both lay feverish in a hut made of plywood and woven mats. She has been caring for her daughter and her boy’s father since they died in a motorcycle accident five years ago.

Another daughter, Giovanni Risco, was caring for them, but was reluctant to take them to the hospital for fear of intensive care.

Neighbors also got sick. The elderly couple, Joséfa Rivas, 74, and Mario Mollé, 76, were too weak to move, could hardly eat and had been confined to bed for two weeks, their families said. .

Community leader Cristobal Timana estimated that more than half of the 640 households had dengue. The community, which began six years ago as a camp for flood victims, relies on tanks that pipe water into barrels kept at home. These are uncovered and therefore breeding grounds for mosquito larvae. Timana said she had been appealing to local authorities to fumigate her home for two months, but it had not worked.

An El Niño event expected later this year is expected to bring more heavy rainfall and flooding.

According to one report, the climate crisis is causing an increase in vector-borne diseases. 2022 survey. “Temperatures will continue to rise and diseases such as dengue are one of the consequences,” said Dr Luis Pampa, an infectious disease specialist at the Peruvian National Institute of Health, who was treating patients in a tent hospital.

“You don’t have to be a fortune teller to say that if you don’t take this matter seriously, it could get worse.”