Historical Facts About Dengue Fever

Dr. Carlos Jiménez
Medical Director, Presby Primary Healthcare
El Presby

Dengue fever is a disease caused by viruses transmitted through mosquitoes and it has four known serotypes. It is usually found in tropical and subtropical regions throughout the world, mainly in urban or suburban areas. It is regarded as the leading human arboviral disease (a viral disease transmitted by insects), affecting some 50 to 100 million people each year. Classical dengue fever is characterized by the acute onset of high fever, headache, generalized muscle and joint pain, nausea, vomiting, reduction in white blood cell and platelets count, and, frequently, skin rash. The more severe forms of the disease produce hemorrhaging or intravascular fluid leakage and are known, respectively, as Dengue Hemorrhaging Fever (DHF) and Dengue Shock Syndrome (DSS). Both of them can be fatal.

WELCOME TO EL PRESBY

For over a 100 years, the Ashford Presbyterian Community Hospital or “El Presby”, has maintained its reputation as one of the most advanced nongovernmental hospitals in the Caribbean, and has been renowned for its high quality medical care as well as for its charitable efforts in favor of indigents. These were the original goals of the Presbyterian Mission when founding the Hospital in 1904. Nevertheless, the origins of the institution really date from 1900, the year in which the Dr. J. Milton Green, who was in charge of the Presbyterian Mission and of its Church in Santurce, made a request to provide medical aid to the community.

In 1901, Dr. Grace Williams Atkins, the first medical missionary in Puerto Rico, succeeded in her struggle to establish a hospital. In 1904 three wooden structures were built to accommodate a clinic, administrative offices, and patient quarters with capacity for 45 beds.