Brazil records 72% increase in dengue cases in first quarter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil saw an explosion in dengue cases in the first three months of the year. The region most affected by the disease is the Midwest.

The city with the highest number of cases in Brazil is Goiânia. With over 22.5 thousand cases, the number of registered cases has almost doubled compared to all of last year.

“I just came from a situation with many covid treatments and now I have to treat many people with dengue,” laments infectiologist Alexandre Costa.

The rate is 117 in the north, 81 in the southeast, and 49 cases per 100,000 population in the northeast.

By the end of March, 70 people had died of dengue fever in the country. Most of them in São Paulo, then Goiás and Bahia.

Dengue fever struck the family of seamstress Erismar Pereira Nogueira in Brasilia.

“There were six people. Everyone got infected at once, it seemed as if dengue fever was spreading from one to another,” she says.

The dengue virus arrived in Brazil in the 1980s. In all that time, scientists have agreed that the best way to prevent it is related to public behavior and is much simpler than developing a vaccine. Just don’t leave water in the house.

Rodrigo Gurgel, a professor at the University of Brasilia, has been studying parasites for more than 20 years. He explains that every four or five years, the number of cases explodes. It depends on the increase in rainfall and the relaxation of care by the population.

“That’s why this educational campaign is important to raise awareness among the population. The flower pot, the swimming pool, the water tank, the gutter are places where the mosquito can develop and they should be controlled by the population. Because even if there are health officials, they cannot reach every house. So we have to do our part,” he advises.

Environmentalist Herica Pereira is doing her part, but she can’t fight this war alone.

“If the person does not eliminate the focus, does not prevent it from being born, it will not help. So it depends on everyone’s attitude. We can only fight the mosquito together,” she says.