The Dominican Republic has not achieved, in the foreseeable future, have access to cholera vaccinesdiarrheal disease which was detected in about eight patients nationwide and neighboring Haiti has about 18,000 suspected casesmore than 1,300 confirmed and at least 320 deadaccording to official data from earlier this week.
The global shortage of vaccines which helps prevent the disease, as well as the low incidence of cases on the Dominican side of the island, make it difficult for Dominican health authorities to access organic.
Here’s how he explained it to Free every day the deputy minister of public health, eladio perezunderlining the interest that the Dominican Republic has in being able to administer vaccines, at least in places of greater vulnerability.
With this interest, they turned to both the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the manufacturers.
“The problem this community has involves intervention by other ministries and government departments”Deputy Minister of Health
“We asked for support and the PHO informed us that we did not qualify, because the situation in the country does not meet the emergency criteria for accessing the vaccine. They inform us that there is also a global shortage of the vaccine, which, if there were, could sustain us. We also spoke to the company that makes the vaccine and the response was the same,” the official said.
Although to date only eight positives at anger In the country, given that the first case was detected last October, the deputy minister underlines how nice it would be to be able to apply it to the vulnerable population.
He cites as an example the sectors found around the Isabela River, in the National District, a tributary where the bacterium that produces the anger and on the sidelines of whom, precisely in the sector The Zurzasix of the eight positives registered to date are presented.
“Having a vaccine for that community would be very good, since people in the community have habits of drinking these waters, decades-old habits that it’s very hard for them to stop doing those things no matter how much you tell them,” he says. Perez…
The Ministry of Public Health has insisted that the waters of the Isabela River are not used for any purpose due to its high contamination. Also that the community of The Zurza it ceased to use the water from the spa known as La Poza, located next to the Isabella, but people are still seen using that tributary.
Intervention a The Zurza
The aforementioned district is the subject of an interinstitutional intervention which aims at the reclamation of ravines, the cleaning of the streets, the supply of drinking water and waste water drainage systems, as well as medical and educational assistance to prevent anger.
As defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), the anger It is a disease of poverty, closely linked to the lack of sanitation and lack of drinking water, situations that characterize the sector The Zurzawhere the authorities have inventoried at least 60 homes without access to drinking water and without toilets, so they discharge directly into the river or gorges.
“The important thing is that we are here and we are giving everything to do it well. Water, chlorine, garbage collection, doctors, a field hospital, before the disease sets in. And we will continue there, repeating the discourse of self-care, of hygiene”.
Since the disease anger It is acquired by bacteria through food intake. Public health has emphasized in its recommendation to the population to maintain constant hand hygiene, cook food well, drink potable water and not disperse faecal waste into the environment.
About the vaccine
The vaccine against anger it is applied in two administrations with intervals of not less than seven days, and in vulnerable patients a booster dose is recommended every two years. It is recommended for adults and children from six years of age.
Without the lethality that characterized it in its first year, COVID-19 presents levels of diffusion this Christmas similar to those achieved in the same period of 2020, the year in which the pandemic began in the Dominican Republic. The report issued by the Ministry of Public Health shows a daily positivity of 25.36% out of a total of 1,383 samples processed, of which 192 positive cases for coronavirus, but the accumulated positivity at four weeks was 13.59%, a percentage similar to the 13.20% they reported two years ago on December 22, 2020. In that first pandemic Christmas that Dominicans had, under the restrictive mobility measures that the government has imposed to control the contagion, COVD-19 is been felt to have a greater impact on the health of people who had not yet been vaccinated against the virus. For the same date of December 22, Public Health recorded 13 deaths due to that disease in just 24 hours, while the intensive care units exceeded 50% of employment.
