local10 | The deaths of
10 people in the past week of a mysterious disease in several cities in
Venezuela, including the capital of Caracas, have caused panic within
the population and has prompted doctors to sound the alarm.
A
government spokesman minimized the warnings and described efforts to
notify the public of a disease that has killed four adults and four
children as a "campaign of disinformation and terrorism."
Despite
the government's indifference, the country's doctors insist there is
plenty of reason for concern about a highly dangerous and contagious
disease of unknown origin.
"We do not know what it is," admitted Duglas León Natera, president of the Venezuelan Medical Federation.
In
its initial stages, the disease presents symptoms of fever and spots on
the skin, and then produces large blisters and internal and external
bleeding, according to data provided week stop by the College of
Physicians of the state of Aragua, where the first cases were reported.
Then,
very quickly, patients suffer from respiratory failure, liver failure
and kidney failure. Venezuelan doctors have not been able to determine
what the disease is, much less how to fight it.
The
government has denied the existence of "a mysterious disease" and
described the information provided by the doctors as a "media campaign
against Venezuela."
The
governor of the state of Aragua, Tarek El-Aissami and Communications
Minister Delcy Rodriguez, refer to the warnings as a "defamatory"
strategy to "distress to the population."
Some
theories being examined include the possibility that the disease could
be a new type of very aggressive and severe dengue, an atypical version
of the Chikunguña fever or an Ebola virus appearance in Venezuela.
