Chikungunya fever affected nearly half a million in DR

Santo Domingo.- Despite reporting a month ago that chikungunya fever cases were declining in the Dominican Republic, the latest figures from the Public Health Ministry reveal that nearly half a million persons haven been affected by the disease in the country.

Quoted by Diario Libre, Public Health minister Freddy Hidalgo said that with the 13,336 new suspected cases of the chikungunya virus registered as of 15 August the total figure rises to 429,421.

However, the official pointed out that over the last six weeks the incidence is keeping a declining tendency throughout the country.

According to the paper, Hidalgo considered that such a decrease has to do with the measures executed by the health authorities which included visiting more than 1,600,000 homes to teach the population how to eliminate the sources of the breeding grounds for the Aedes Aegypti mosquito.