Campbell: Tufton's 'colossal failure' led to dengue deaths

Dr Dayton Campbell, opposition health spokesman, is accusing Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton and ministry technocrats of failing to heed early warnings in 2018 that the country was likely to face an outbreak of dengue fever, and, as a result, no mitigating action was activated to prevent a crisis and deaths.

In reacting to Tufton's announcement on Thursday that the nation was now facing a dengue fever outbreak, Campbell said that the minister "has repeated the errors evident in recent outbreaks of vector-borne diseases by his stubborn refusal to act on available information and mobilise the health system to respond to the looming crisis".

Sharp rise in cases

Campbell said that in 2017, there were 177 suspected cases in Jamaica, while as of November 17 last year, the country had recorded 412 cases, a more than 130 per cent increase.

He said this worsened by December 14 when there were 560 reported cases.

Campbell said that despite an increase of 148 between November 17 and December 14, Tufton continued to deny that there was an outbreak of dengue in Jamaica.

"This was a colossal failure by Dr Tufton, which has led to much suffering and deaths," he said.

Campbell said that the underestimation and failure to mobilise the health system in a proactive manner resulted in severe under-resourcing, which caused the Infectious Diseases Ward at the Bustamante Hospital for Children to run out of capacity and patients to be housed elsewhere.

In addition, he claimed that the failure to begin early public education resulted in persons taking aspirin or other NSAIDs, which are contraindicated in dengue due to the increased risk of bleeding and subsequent development of dengue haemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome, both of which may be life threatening.