The extensive flooding in the north of the country, which has already claimed at least ten lives, is now in danger of causing more dengue fever outbreaks, according to health experts. Hoy newspaper reports that Radhames Lora Salcedo, who heads the National Emergency Committee, called on the Health Ministry to do more about the threat. Speaking in Monte Cristi, one of the most affected provinces, he said that mosquitoes were breeding quickly in the waterlogged areas and that more medical supplies were needed urgently. Hoy’s Pedro Gil Iturbides speaks of the “incalculable costs” of the floods, which claimed the lives of hundreds of farm animals and wiped out entire crops, as well as the human casualties caused and the damage done to property. Emergency response has a role to play, said Gil, but prevention is more effective. He called on the authorities to design an effective plan to prevent such extensive damage to vulnerable areas. His feeling is that poverty leads people to live and farm in dangerous areas, and if there were more investment in these areas, this disaster could have been avoided. “The deferred human development programs are what lead hundreds to live on the front-lines of these dangers.”
Public Health Minister Jose Rodriguez Soldevila said he was waiting for government disbursements to be able to act on prevention tactics and to assist the people.