Peru declares national emergency as dengue fever outbreak kills 200 and overwhelms hospitals

More than 200 people have died of dengue fever in Peru, as hospitals are overwhelmed and struggling to treat patients, as the country battles the worst outbreak of the disease.

About 130,000 people have caught the virus across the country so far this year, including 37,000 children. The outbreak surpasses the previous record set in 2017, when nearly 70,000 cases were confirmed, according to the government.

The northwest region of Piura was the most affected. The authorities were forced to build field emergency rooms in tents on sports fields to deal with a deluge of cases, bringing back dark memories of the country’s Covid crisis and leading to media reports of “overwhelmed” health facilities.

“The Peru-Korea Friendship Hospital Santa Rosa, one of the most important in the whole region, collapsed and had to treat the sick in motorcycle taxis, vehicles, benches and wheelchairs ; that is to say in the corridors and also in the street”, journalists from public eye written at the end of May.

Dengue fever, a virus transmitted by the striped mosquito Aedes aegypti, is nicknamed “broken bone fever” because of the severe muscle pain it can cause. Other symptoms include fever, patchy red rash, nausea, and headache.