Two children in ICU after infected with dengue; Guyana has 2000+ active cases

Two children are critically ill and receiving treatment in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Georgetown Public Hospital after they were infected with dengue.

This was revealed by Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony on Friday afternoon at the sidelines of an event at Anna Regina, Region Two (Pomeroon- Supenaam).

The News Room first learnt that several children were receiving treatment for dengue fever at the Georgetown Public Hospital on Thursday night and when asked about this, Dr Anthony revealed that two of them are in the ICU.

Further, he noted that several other adults have been admitted to the hospital in the past week after they were infected with dengue. Dr. Anthony emphasised that the patients are being monitored and adequately treated.

The Health Minister also acknowledged that there has been an increase in cases locally but pointed out that similar increases have been recorded across the region.

“There’s an excess of three million cases across Latin America…(and) we in Guyana have also seen an increase in cases,” Dr. Anthony said.

Based on official statistics, a total of 3,453 people in Guyana were infected with dengue this year. And of that amount, 2,169 cases are still considered active; this means, they may be experiencing symptoms associated with dengue.

For this week, so far, 192 people have been infected.

The highest number of cases was recorded in the week of July 30 to August 5 – a total of 419 people tested positive. Importantly, 64 per cent (or just over two-thirds) of the active dengue cases were recorded in people younger than 30.