Fever, body aches, headache, cough, asthenia ... For the past week, many have been complaining about these signs and symptoms. Is this an isolated symptomatology or clinical manifestations of Covid-19? Dr. Pavel Desrosiers, executive director of the Infectious and Communicable Diseases Control Unit at the MSPP, takes stock of this ambiguous situation which risks creating more confusion around this pandemic.
In Haiti, infectious diseases are one of the primary causes of consultation. Whether it is respiratory infections, urinary tract infections, or an endemic disease such as malaria, the country was facing, before Covid-19, infectious and communicable diseases that should not be overlooked in this pandemic context. "In absolute terms, infectious diseases have the same general signs. Fever, aches, headaches generally reflect the reaction of the organism towards a pathogenic agent, in particular in the event of infection", specifies Dr. Pavel Desrosiers.
Before Covid-19, people did not systematically go to a hospital center for fever or flu-like illness. There is traditional medicine, "grandmother" methods, without forgetting the 35% of the population who do not have access to health care, analyzes the executive director of the infectious and communicable diseases control unit.
While it is undeniable that fever, muscle aches, and other signs existed long before Covid-19, it is nonetheless true that in this precise context no other epidemic which would be at the origin of such symptomatology has not been listed in the infectious and communicable disease control unit, said Dr. Pavel Desrosiers.
"In the first quarter of the year, there was an epidemic of fever linked to malaria, but this epidemic was limited to the departments of the South, Grand-Anse and, to a lesser extent, in the West", notes Dr. Pavel Desrosiers who thinks that for now, given the forecasts, Covid-19 is in full swing in Haiti and any fever epidemic could be linked to the peak of the pandemic.
Further, the professor at the State University of Haiti advises all those who have felt signs and symptoms such as fever, body aches, unexplained diarrhea, migraine (headache), not to get be satisfied with the diagnosis of a loved one or people from the population but go to a hospital center or call the numbers provided by the Ministry of Public Health and Population.
Useless to seek midday at fourteen decides Dr. Pavel Desrosiers, we are in a phase of local transmission. The peak of the pandemic is likely to lead to a disaster. "Only containment can help us avoid the worst," said the head of the infectious and communicable diseases control unit of the MSPP.
Without being insensitive to the reality of those who live day to day, he thinks that we must study the possibility of confining the whole country completely for the next 2 or 3 weeks. "I sign and persist that prevention is the best weapon we have. As such, containment is the surest way to smooth the curve of the pandemic. We are at the beginning of a skyrocketing, if do nothing, we risk rushing into the worst scenario of the announced disaster, "warns Dr. Pavel Desrosiers.
