Secretary says dengue fever outbreaks are in homes.
Hans Dohmann urges residents to search for breeding grounds of the Aedes aegypti mosquito in their homes; in one week, more than 10.000 new cases were registered in the municipality; 12 people died from the disease.
247 - In an interview with the newspaper Bom Dia Rio, on the Rede Globo television network, on the morning of this Wednesday (25), Hans Dohmann, Secretary of Health and Civil Defense, stated that the breeding grounds of the mosquito that transmits dengue fever are in the homes of the city's residents. The municipality of Rio has an epidemic of the disease, declared on the afternoon of this Tuesday (24).
The Secretariat predicted that in a short time the municipality would reach the mark of 300 patients for every 100 inhabitants, which characterizes the epidemic state of a disease in a given population.
Dohmann stressed that the population must become aware and help combat the breeding grounds of the mosquito that transmits the disease, Aedes Aegypti.
“We urge the public to help us. Now is the time. Summer is over, but we still have a large number of cases. Destroying an outbreak today prevents a case the following week.”
To try to reduce the number of breeding grounds in neighborhoods with a higher incidence of cases, such as Bangu, Realengo, Campo Grande in the West Zone, and Madureira in the suburbs, where there has been a high incidence of the disease, the secretary emphasizes that inspections have been intensified. “We conducted a major inspection in these areas last weekend, during the holiday. Thousands of breeding grounds were destroyed. More than 600 agents were concentrated in that region, precisely so that we could conduct another thorough inspection of the area,” he explained.
According to the secretary, a higher number of deaths in this epidemic was only avoided because the city government anticipated preventive measures. “The city government has been preparing since last year; it has been staying ahead of the disease and thus increasing its prevention capacity. We broke all records for visits to properties last year and are maintaining the same pace this year,” he assured, emphasizing that services have also been expanded.
"We have greatly increased the infrastructure for serving the population, which has resulted in this epidemic having the fewest deaths in the history of Rio de Janeiro, but we need to continue working hard," said Dohmann.
The announcement of the dengue epidemic indicates that the city has entered a stage where there are more than 300 cases of the disease for every 100 inhabitants, and this number is increasing. From January 1st to April 21st, 2012, 50.016 cases and 12 deaths from the disease were recorded in the city.
In one week, the number of cases in the city of Rio increased by almost 10. The previous count, with records up to April 14th, totaled 40.252 cases.