The Dominican Medical Association (CMD) has said that the chikungunya virus has affected more than 200,000 people nationwide causing emergency rooms across the country to overflow.
CMD president Dr. Pedro Sing says that in addition, 20 to 30% of doctors were now infected and he called on Public Health Minister Dr. Freddy Hidalgo Nunez and President Danilo Medina to step up the campaign to destroy the aedes aegypti and aedes albopictus mosquito breeding grounds.
He added that the Health Ministry should set up mobile chikungunya units at the hospitals to relieve congestion in the emergency rooms and appoint more doctors on a short-term basis.
Robert Reid Cabral hospital director Dr. Rosa Nieves Paulino said that the emergency room there was full of children with signs of fever, mostly due to chikungunya, who were sleeping three and four to a bed.
She said that the hospital had 300 doctors but that most had now been affected by the virus, as well as many nurses, security and administrative staff. However she confirmed that they had enough medicine to cope with the demand.
http://elnacional.com.do/cmd-mas-de-200-mil-con-chikungunya/