BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Barbados health authorities confirmed there have been more than 500 confirmed cases of dengue fever so far this year as a local newspaper reported that a senior banker may have died as a result of the mosquito-borne illness.
The Ministry of Health in a statement said that there were 511 confirmed cases of dengue so far this year compared with 169 for the same period last year.
In 2012, Barbados recorded 431 confirmed cases.
The Ministry of Health said that while one death from dengue was recorded in May, it is investigating “a recent death”.
The Nation newspaper reported Wednesday that Republic Bank Limited manager Lorraine Sealy, 43, who died Tuesday, may have succumbed to dengue fever, an infectious tropixal disease caused by the dengue virus with symptoms that include fever, headache, muscle and joint pains as well as skin rash similar to measles.