The infectologist Tomás Mateo Balmelli spoke about the behavior of chikungunya cases in Paraguay, where there are pictures with symptoms that do not coincide with the records of other countries. He also explained that this is a disease of “poor countries”, so there are no large investments to develop a vaccine.
In conversation with Radio Monumental 1080 AM, the health professional recalled that Paraguay had already had an outbreak of chikungunya in 2015, but the population became “more sensitive to dengue”, since many experienced the disease.
“Today the mosquito is getting more of the chikungunya and we are with an outbreak, we reached the peak and we are on a plateau. A death rate of 0.1% to 0.2% and a hospitalization rate of 2% are estimated, as well as an outpatient management of 98%,” he said.
Read more: Chikungunya: Regional alert issued due to increase in cases and deaths
Mateo Balmelli pointed out that it is likely that the registry of the Ministry of Health is only an underreporting, since the tests are not carried out on a massive scale.
“Health does not have the capacity to define cases. Three things must be taken into account: the possible cases, the tests and the definite one, which has a positive test. We’re not doing a lot of public testing. We would be in order of the 40 deceased. This should go down and it is expected that in Holy Week the cold wave will decrease the reservoirs ”, he explained.
The professional maintained that the chikungunya virus is not only a health problem, but also a social and environmental problem.
Regarding the development of vaccines or antivirals for this virus, the professional explained that big pharmaceutical companies do not see them as a great source of income.
Related: Senepa will use sterile mosquitoes
“This is a disease of poor countries. It is not a financial market for big pharma to develop vaccines or antivirals. There are vaccines under study, development, against chikungunya and antivirals that are being worked on, but not with the zeal or intensity necessary, because there is not much investment, because the market is underdeveloped countries, ”he emphasized.
official figures
The Ministry of Health confirmed last Thursday that 34 people died from the disease. To date, 34,659 cases between probable and confirmed have been reported. The accumulated number of hospitalizations reaches 2,910 patients.
97% of deaths were reported this year. Meanwhile, 93% of the notifications correspond between the last week of 2022 and the previous week.
In this outbreak, 132 cases were reported in newborns. Four of them died. A fatal case in a 31-day-old infant was also reported.
