The man sits in the hallway waiting for his turn in the Infectious and Tropical Diseases Unit (UMIT) at Cayenne Hospital. Patrick, a 60-year-old city official who wishes to remain anonymous, is barely recovering from dengue hemorrhagic fever. It evokes “Very tired at the beginning, 38.5 degree fever that doesn’t go down, no longer feeling hungry or thirsty”. Three days after the first symptoms, victims of “severe dehydration”he goes to the hospital. “I waited a long time in the emergency room, but the care at UMIT was impeccablesays this resident on the outskirts of Cayenne. Thirteen days after the onset of the disease, a vessel in my right eye burst, I can hardly see anything anymore, I was told it would come back. »
At UMIT, between thirty and forty patients are treated every day in the two medical practices that were set up to combat the epidemic. “We have a lot of cases, patients are exhausted, some need three weeks to recover, this is throwing the whole of Guyana into turmoil.”explains Laureen Dahuron, young infectious disease doctor. Dengue fever is a viral infection that is locally transmitted by mosquitoes. Aedes aegypti. On February 15, Public Health France (SPF) counted almost 13,000 cases “clinically suggestive” in Guyana, including more than 6,600 confirmed cases since the epidemic began a year ago, with an acceleration since January 1um January: In a month and a half, almost half of clinically suspicious cases and 60% of proven cases were registered.
A very tired young woman is also waiting to see a doctor. “It hurts all over my body, I have difficulty standing, I get dizzy when I bend overexplains Arlène, mother of four children. I have a baby to take care of, it’s not easy. »
“This dengue epidemic is the worst in the last twenty yearsanalyzes Tiphanie Succo, head of SPF in Guyana. By mid-2023 it was mainly located in Kourou [dans le nord], but now it affects the entire area. » While in most cases dengue fever is limited to mild symptoms, it can cause high fever, headache, nausea and vomiting, with recovery taking up to two weeks. In rare cases, a severe, potentially fatal hemorrhagic form occurs: the reduction in the number of platelets in the blood, which enable clotting, can lead to multiple bleeding events. Since the beginning of the epidemic, there have been four deaths of people who tested positive for dengue fever and 190 hospitalizations at Cayenne Hospital, including 116 since January 1um January.
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