The Ministry of Health (Minsa), through the General Directorate of Public Health, has activated four rapid response teams due to the whooping cough outbreak detected by the epidemiological surveillance system in the Comarca Ngäbe-Buglé Health Region, with the aim of controlling it and preventing it from spreading to other communities.
Yelkys Gill, General Director of Public Health, explained that from the first day the whooping cough outbreak was detected, activities have been carried out in the Soloy and Emplanada de Chorcha districts, attending to patients, identifying suspected cases, taking samples for laboratory analysis, applying vaccines, and supplying chemoprophylactic treatment to exposed individuals related to the 16 confirmed cases to date.
Following the confirmation of the whooping cough outbreak, the Minsa of Panama notified the authorities of Costa Rica, as we are in the sugarcane harvest season, when Ngäbe-Buglé families move to carry out this work.
In total, 729 people have been attended to and 3,001 doses of the vaccine have been administered, Gill confirmed. Minsa is calling on the population of the Besikó district to go to health centers to get vaccinated.
This Thursday, a team from the General Directorate of Public Health, including the General Director, the coordinator of the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI), and the head of Epidemiology of Minsa, will travel to the Comarca Ngäbe-Buglé to reinforce the joint work with local authorities, Meduca, and the Governorship.
Itzel de Hewitt, coordinator of the Expanded Program on Immunization, stated that Minsa will be placing radio segments in the Ngäbe-Buglé language so that the message reaches the population and they come to get vaccinated. Hewitt indicated that the vaccination rate in the Comarca Ngäbe-Buglé is 85%.
Minsa is strengthening mass vaccination in communities near the outbreak cases, with the goal of interrupting community transmission, protecting as many people as possible, and ensuring the immediate application of the biological agent to susceptible groups.
