Chad's Senate on Friday pressed Health Minister Abdelmadjid Abderahim over the dengue outbreak, including whether the free care the government announced is reaching patients.
Senator Zara Dillo asked whether hospitals and health centres had "actually received the instructions and the means necessary" to apply the measure, the state news agency ATPE reported. She also questioned the official death figures.
The minister gave figures as of 3 November: 6,275 suspected cases and 18 deaths. He said deaths in communities, outside health facilities, are hard to count. Several senators said 18 looked too low; the minister said there was "nothing to hide", Tchadinfos reported. He said Chad has about 12,000 health workers of all kinds for roughly 20 million people.
Neither report records his answer on whether free-care instructions and supplies have reached facilities.