Local cases of dengue mount

| 08/12/2019 | 8 Comments
Cayman News Service

(CNS): Officials from the Public Health Department have confirmed that the cases of dengue fever that have been acquired by residents with no travel history to countries where the disease is endemic, continues to grow. Over the last two weeks three more patients have tested positive for dengue that they acquired in the Cayman Islands. The total number of confirmed dengue cases since in October that were contracted here is now seventeen, with nine other patients picking up the fever overseas.

Patients who have been sick with dengue live in most districts on Grand Cayman, with just North Side having no confirmed cases.

During 2019 health workers here have sent 150 samples to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) to be investigated for dengue. Of those, 34 patients were admitted to the Cayman Islands Hospital or Health City Cayman Islands with clinical symptoms that might potentially be dengue, though not all turned out to be the mosquito-transmitted fever.

However, with some 26 cases in less than three months, the Public Health Department’s Surveillance Unit continues to deploy enhanced measures, working closely with government and private sector physicians to review reports of suspected dengue.

For more information, contact the Public Health Department on 244-2648.

For advice on mosquito control, contact MRCU on 949-2557 in Grand Cayman, or 948-2223 on Cayman Brac; and Department of Environmental Health on 949-6696 in Grand Cayman, or 948-2321 in Cayman Brac.


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Category: Health, Medical Health

Comments (8)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    CNS can you post the symptoms please ?

    CNS: Try this link.

    • Anonymous says:

      Symptoms can include –

      Sudden, high fever
      Severe headaches
      Pain behind the eyes
      Severe joint and muscle pain
      Fatigue
      Nausea
      Vomiting
      and possibly a rash.

      Basically, (and I speak from experience) you feel like crap for a few days then it clears. Bit like having a bad dose of flu except you’re not infectious and there are no lasting chest, throat or sinus problems.

      Unless the symptoms become severe or you get indications of bleeding you don’t need to seek medical treatment. The only thing to do is ride it out, plenty of fluids and paracetamol are advisable. My partner and I developed the symptoms on Truk Lagoon the day we were due to fly back to the UK via Honolulu and Chicago. That was over three-days traveling with two overnight stopovers and an overnight flight – by the time we got home it had almost cleared.

  2. Anonymous says:

    Cases ‘mount’? This getting silly! Anyone who has ever dived Micronesia knows that dengue is as common out there as colds and flu are during an English Winter. It is nasty but didn’t kill me or my partner so what’s all the hysteria about?

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    • Anonymous says:

      well it killed me, so there

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    • Al Catraz says:

      …after all, the elderly and those otherwise not fit enough for diving in Micronesia, for whom a bout of flu can be deadly, are pretty much candidates for “thinning the herd.”

      It is amazing how some people can believe they, and their immune system, are representative of the entire population.

      The Spanish Flu, which killed millions of people, had infected tens of millions of people who didn’t die. Most of the time, these sorts of diseases are not fatal. It’s simply a question of what percentage of the population you don’t mind sacrificing.

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  3. Anonymous says:

    Still 0.026% of the total population of Cayman residents.

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