“Dengue is not ending, nothing is decreasing,” shouts grandmother at Hugo Mendoza Hospital.

Santo Domingo.- The concern and distrust caused by the number of dengue fever patients continues among parents attending hospitals in Santo Domingo, where children with symptoms and suspicions of the disease transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito continue to fill the emergency rooms.

Family members say they do not believe the number of cases has decreased. On the contrary, they say that they know of more and more children with symptoms; they also say that spaces and beds in hospitals are scarce.

Johanna Santos, the grandmother of a nine-month-old baby, was waiting for news about her grandson outside the Hugo Mendoza Pediatric Hospital in Santo Domingo Norte after being admitted for several days with suspected dengue fever.

“Don’t pay any attention to the fact that dengue is decreasing. Dengue is ending; it is not decreasing at all. That is a lie,” said the lady. She insisted that there were no more beds available at the hospital due to the number of children hospitalized.

According to a hospital spokesman, yesterday morning, 82 patients remained in the center, which was at maximum capacity.

No beds

During the last few weeks, the number of patients in the hospitals continues to be alarming, while several health centers are at maximum capacity, and the lack of beds to attend to the infants is evident, according to parents.

Yoleidy Suarez, mother of a two-year-old boy admitted to the Robert Reid Cabral Children’s Hospital with dengue fever, indicated that although her little boy has received good care, she says that in the observation area, there are no beds.

“Upstairs (in internment) everything is fine, but downstairs, in observation, there are three and four children in a single bed,” Suarez said.

This information was corroborated by other people such as Maritza Rodriguez, aunt of a 14-year-old boy with the same disease, who assured that the emergency area has remained full.

Outside the Hugo Mendoza Hospital, several parents were waiting for news of their relatives admitted or attended by the Emergency Department. They indicated that the wards of the health center were also full of parents with their children.

“You can’t even get in here,” exclaimed a mother who came with her little girl who has sickle cell disease (sickle cell patient), referring to the fact that the place was overcrowded and that she would have to go to another health center.

Robert Reid

At the Robert Reid Cabral Hospital, in the morning hours, 33 patients had been admitted with symptoms of dengue fever.

According to a spokesman for the health center, 69 patients were still in the ward with a possible diagnosis of the disease, while eight were confirmed.

In the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), the center kept a total of four children hospitalized, all of whom were stable.

Alarming symptoms

Among the warning signs for parents coming to children’s hospitals are fever, vomiting, headache, and body aches, among other symptoms.

In addition to these febrile symptoms, children come to the centers with signs of respiratory viruses such as pneumonia or bronchopneumonia.