[ad_1]
The patient is a 5-year-old girl who lives in a district of Lima and the government has activated a national epidemiological alert seeking to identify more cases to take measures to prevent and control the disease.
Peru has reported its first case of diphtheria in 20 years in the Andean country, at a time when vaccination coverage primarily for children has slowed due to the coronavirus-triggered health crisis, the government said.
Deputy Minister of Public Health, Luis Suárez, reported Tuesday night 27-O that it is a five-year-old girl who lives in a district of Lima and the government has activated a national epidemiological alert in search of identifying more cases to take disease prevention and control measures.
Diphtheria, a bacterium that affects the respiratory tract, is contracted by contagion through the secretions of infected people and in severe cases has “a mortality that can exceed 10%,” said Suárez.
The official said the Pan American Health Organization (OPS) warned in 2019 of the presence of diphtheria in countries in the region such as Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and Haiti; and the last time it was reported in Peru was in 2000.
The emergence of diphtheria occurs at a time when Peru has more than 892,000 coronavirus cases with 34,200 deaths, which has spawned a crisis in its chaotic hospital system.
“This year in particular the problem that we have had in almost the entire Latin American continent is the vaccination coverage which is low, especially in children under one year of age, who are those who have not received the corresponding vaccines,” said Suárez. at a press conference.
The deputy minister said that in this context so far this year the coverage of diphtheria and tetanus vaccines is at 40%, when it should be around 70%.
Suárez said the affected girl “is hospitalized and stable, however, given the awareness of the severity of the disease, she is under the care of doctors.”
The official said they are moving brigades of experts to the nearby area where the girl lives to identify suspected cases and vaccinate the infants against diphtheria, which has an incubation period of 2 to 5 days before the first symptoms appear, such as fever and ache. of throat.
Source link
