Ministry of Health lacks of labs to test dengue Dengue spreads in Shabowa [Archives:2005/899/Health]
AMEL ALARIQI
Yemen Times Staff
Parliament report exposed that 1000 infections of dengue were registered in Shabowa (458 km southeast of Sana'a) governate until the 8th of June 2005. The report blamed the ministry of public health and population, saying that ministry does not provide facilities and equipments to fight this disease. The report warned that dengue fever will spread to all provinces of the governate if the ministry does not take any procedures against this disease.
The report pointed to the national program to fight malaria which is also responsible for fighting dengue fever, mentioning that the efforts made to fight this disease are not enough, because of the insufficiency of technical, financial and human abilities. The report said that the budget of this program is less than 1% of the approved ministry's budget. The report insisted that the ministry is lack of labs to test the infections. The report asked the ministry to evaluate the situation by sending field teams in all the governorates of Yemen.
Medical resources mentioned that Ali Huseen Ashal, a parliamentarian, blamed the government and asking it to take its responsibility to save citizens' lives. Majed Aljuneed, deputy in health ministry, underestimated the risk of the disease when he said that Yemen is not the only country which have this disease, there are 128 countries infected by dengue fever that appeared in east Asian countries fifty years ago.
Dengue fever, which can be treated, is an infectious disease carried by mosquitoes and is found mostly during and shortly after the rainy season in tropical and subtropical areas.
Dengue fever can be caused by any one of four types of the dengue virus: DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3, and DEN-4. A person can be infected by at least two, if not all four types at different times during a life span, but only once by the same type.
Since dengue fever was first detected on 16 December in the small city of Zabid in Hudaidah, 124 cases of infection have been reported. By mid-January seven people in the city had died of the disease, the ministry report said.
Dr. Hashim Elzein, WHO representative in Yemen, said that type 1 was discovered for the first time in some districts of Shabwa province in July 2002, then appeared again in 2003 in Ataq city, the capital of Shabwa province.
“The results from the laboratories showed that people from whom blood was collected in Hudaidah and Zabid, as well as those from Shabwa, were exposed to dengue fever before 2002,” he explained.
The danger of dengue fever depends on its type the doctor explained: “We have to differentiate between dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever. Dengue fever is usually without bleeding, but dengue hemorrhagic fever is with hemorrhaging and people can bleed from the gums, the intestines, stomach or from the nose, as well as other symptoms,” Dr. Alzein said.
——
[archive-e:899-v:14-y:2005-d:2005-12-01-p:health]
