Rio de Janeiro declares emergency over dengue fever

Rio de Janeiro declared a “public health emergency” ahead of Carnival. given the rapid rise in dengue cases in the city, which have crossed 10,000 since the beginning of the year, as published in the Official Gazette this Monday. Rio City Hall has unveiled an emergency plan to combat the so-called dengue epidemic, which includes implementing a number of measures to prevent the spread of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which transmits the disease.

Other regions of Brazil are also experiencing serious outbreaks of dengue fever, such as the Federal District of Brasilia, where They even set up a field hospital to care for infected patients.. “The numbers are high throughout Brazil, which is alarming due to the urgency of action by public authorities and the population,” warned Rio City Hall, which is preparing to welcome hundreds of thousands of tourists these days for Carnival celebrations.

Carnival in Rio Brazil’s largest and world-famous party officially begins next Friday., although thousands of people took to the streets last weekend to accompany the traditional parades. Rio, the country’s most tourist city, has reported more than 10,000 dengue cases this year, compared with 22,959 cases recorded in all of 2023, according to official data.

The incidence rate in Rio is now 160.68 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
The measures that will be implemented by the Rio authorities include: the creation of an emergency center, the creation of ten special health care points distributed throughout the municipality, the reservation of beds for dengue patients in public hospitals; and carry out fumigation of regions with the highest incidence.

So far this year There are 262,247 cases of dengue fever reported in Brazil.This is evidenced by data from the Ministry of Health. In January alone, they increased by 160% compared to the same month in 2023. According to the latest official count, the country has 29 confirmed deaths from the disease, with a further 173 deaths under investigation.

Last Saturday, Health Minister Nicia Trindade inaugurated the Dengue Emergency Operations Center to harmonize dengue management and surveillance strategies with the support of states and municipalities. Trindade then denied to the press that the country was in an “emergency situation” because, in his opinion, Epidemic conditions are observed only in some regions, such as Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, Acre and Minas Gerais..

The increase in the incidence of dengue fever occurs on the eve of the start of the Ministry of Health’s distribution of the first batches of the vaccine developed by the Japanese Takeda laboratory. Brazil will be the first country in the world to offer this formula in the public health system, although its use is not expected to have an immediate health impact due to the low availability of doses.