Dengue Surge in Belize District Strains Hospital Resources Amid Spike in Severe Cases

The surge in dengue cases plaguing the Belize District is reportedly exhausting much of the resources in the Accident and Emergency Unit of the Karl Heusen Memorial Hospital. As we have reported previously, the national total for dengue cases, when compared to last year, is down.  In the Belize District, however, cases are up by over 260 percent. According to the Ministry of Health and Wellness, the Belize District had fewer than a hundred cases in August last year, but this year, there are now over 300 cases. Love News understands that many of the cases are severe with patients being hospitalized. Tylon Tillett, Public Relations Manager for the hospital, is pleading with the public to take the necessary precautions to avoid getting dengue.

Tylon Tillett, Public Relations Manager, KHMH: “KHMH continues as an institution to battle the elevated numbers of dengue cases that have been showing up at our accident and emergency. We are concerned because these dengue patients are taking up a lot of the resources of the hospital and particularly bed space and we are here to treat everyone as a national referral hospital but we take this opportunity to remind the public that if you are having symptoms related to dengue, and the Ministry of Health has put out some excellent posters outlining the possible symptoms and ways and methods to keep mosquitoes since it is a vector borne disease out of your environment and so if you’re having symptoms don’t wait, please visit your local clinic to get help. The longer you wait the more intense the symptoms become and then you end up at the KHMH and the national referral hospital is here to deal with everyone and take care of everyone but there are very critical patients requiring help related to accidents, interpersonal violence and some very serious situations. And so we have a lot of patients here for the last few weeks since the last interview that are in our emergency ward covered down in mosquito netting.”

Special interventions are being made in the south side of Belize City, where the majority of the cases have been linked.