Page 14 - HOSPITAAL

A12 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 19 June 2018

Puerto Rico struggles with jump in asthma cases post-Maria

By DANICA COTO tion alone has more than
Associated Press 1,200 generators still oper-
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) ating on the island. FEMA
— Shortly after he turned 2, spokeswoman Dasha Cas-
Yadriel Hernandez started tillo said all generators run
struggling to breathe. His by the agency meet cur-
doctor prescribed an in- rent federal environmental
haler and an allergy pill for laws.
asthma, and his symptoms Meanwhile, mold has in-
were mostly under control. vaded homes, especially
Then Hurricane Maria the tens of thousands that
devastated Puerto Rico, still don't have a proper
strewing mold-producing roof. And there's a problem
wreckage across the island with rats, mice and cock-
and forcing many to use roaches, all of which can
fume-spewing generators trigger an asthma attack.
for power. The boy, now "There are a lot of factors
8, started having twice- that are still affecting peo-
monthly attacks and need- ple," said the Health De-
ing nearly four times the partment's Ibis Montalvo,
amount of medicine he who heads a program that
used to take. sends health workers to the
His mother said weekly homes of asthma patients.
power outages in their In this May 29, 2018 photo, Yahir Garcia receives one of his two daily treatments for asthma at a Melissa Pesante says fumes
coastal town of Agua- medical center in San Juan, Puerto Rico. from generators worsened
dilla also feed his anxiety, Associated Press her 5-year-old son's asthma
which can make symptoms and he spent nearly two
worse. He panics about not said Dr. Ivette Bonet, who the U.S. Centers for Disease munology. weeks in a San Juan hospi-
being able to turn on the treats low-income patients Control. There are no fig- Heavy seasonal rains are tal. The family lives on the
plug-in nebulizer that helps at a clinic in the working- ures for Puerto Rico in the contributing to the prob- second floor above a home
control his attacks. class neighborhood of months after Maria, though lem, he said. that runs a generator and
"The lights go out and he Santurce. Bonet says she new accountings are un- "We have never seen some- across from an abandoned
breaks down," said Johana has dozens of new patients der way. thing like this," Bolanos said. house where people keep
Hernandez. "He cries out, who never had asthma be- Experts say the high rates Generators powered by dumping hurricane debris.
'The power is gone, mom! fore the Category 4 storm may be partly due to the diesel or gasoline once Since the hurricane, her son
The power is gone! I'm go- hit. relatively high humidity in used only in emergencies has been prescribed addi-
ing to have an asthma at- "Now they have this cough the Caribbean and the belch fumes daily at hos- tional medication and has
tack!'" that they can never get rid poor state of housing and pitals, schools and water attacks and trouble breath-
Doctors in Puerto Rico say of," she said. infrastructure because of treatment plants because ing several times a month,
they are seeing an alarm- Puerto Rico had high rates Puerto Rico's high poverty the power grid remains compared with hardly any
ing rise in the number and of asthma even before the rate and bankrupt govern- fragile and plagued by attacks before the storm,
severity of asthma cases hurricane. An estimated ment. blackouts. Many are older she said.
that they attribute to de- 435,000 people on the is- Now, towering piles of models that don't meet "He's supposed to use a
struction caused by the land of 3.3 million, or 13 building and plant debris current pollution standards. face mask, but he tells me,
deadly hurricane that wal- percent, had asthma be- from the hurricane remain The U.S. Environmental Pro- 'I don't like it, mom,'" and
loped the island in Sep- fore Maria pummeled the in many neighborhoods. tection Agency waved takes it off, Pesante said of
tember. The chronic lung territory on Sept. 20, ac- Puerto Rico recorded the those rules because of the the surgical mask her son is
disease is caused by such cording to Puerto Rico's highest levels of mold power emergency, the supposed to use whenever
things as pollution, air- Health Department. That spores in more than a de- first time it has made such he goes outside.
borne mold and pollen, all compares to 8.3 percent cade in May, said Benjamin an allowance, agency She'd like to eventually join
of which have increased who suffered from asthma Bolanos, director of the San spokesman David Kluesner relatives in Orlando or Mi-
post-Maria. on the U.S. mainland in Juan Aeroallergens Station said. ami in hopes that her son's
"It has increased so, so, so 2016, according to the lat- of the American Academy The U.S. Federal Emergency health and her finances will
much after the hurricane," est available figures from of Allergy, Asthma and Im- Management Administra- improve.q