Rio de Janeiro city authorities have declared a public health emergency in the city due to an outbreak of mosquito-borne dengue fever.
RIO DE JANEIRO — Days before Carnival festivities begin across Brazil, the city of Rio de Janeiro announced Monday that it has declared a public health emergency following an outbreak of mosquito-borne dengue fever.
The outbreak was not expected to derail Carnival, which officially began Friday night and runs until February 14, but the city has taken a number of special measures in hopes of containing the outbreak. Lectured.
Rio City Hall announced the opening of 10 care centres, the creation of an emergency operations center and the allocation of hospital beds for dengue patients. Authorities will also use “smoke trucks” to spray pesticides into the air in areas with the highest number of infections.
Since the beginning of 2024, more than 10,000 dengue cases have been registered in the municipality. This is just under half of the 23,000 total cases recorded throughout 2023.
The announcement came as tourists and revelers flocked to Rio to take part in street parties and take part in the extravagant parade of samba schools.
Rio state's operational plan for Carnival, presented by Governor Claudio Castro on Monday, also includes an “Eradicate Dengue Every Day” campaign. This will involve distributing repellents, stickers, bandanas and hats with warnings about infectious diseases to the Sunboard Dome audience, and a 15-second notice about fighting infectious diseases will also be shown.
Dengue fever is a viral infection that is transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected mosquito and is more common in tropical climates. Frequent rains and high temperatures accelerate the hatching of mosquito eggs and the development of larvae, making the notoriously hot city of Rio prone to dengue fever.
But the problem is national. At least four other states, Acre, Minas Gerais and Goias, in addition to the Federal District, have declared a public health emergency due to a surge in dengue cases across Brazil.
The Brazilian Air Force set up a 60-bed field hospital in the Federal District of Ceilandia on Monday and was scheduled to begin treating patients.
“Given that today the Federal District accounts for about 20% of the dengue cases in the country, our aim is to provide relief to the emergency medical units in this region,” said Air Force Commander Brig. . Marcelo Canitz Damascene said in his statement:
According to the World Health Organization, most people infected with dengue fever do not develop symptoms, but if they do, it can cause high fever, headache, body aches, nausea, and a rash. In most cases he recovers within a week or so, but in some cases he may develop severe symptoms and require hospitalization. In such cases, dengue fever can be fatal.
In December, the WHO announced that climate change, which brings warmer temperatures and more rainfall, is associated with an increased risk of dengue fever.
Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes, who calls Rio residents “cariocas,” called for the elimination of still water sources that mosquitoes use as breeding grounds.
“Unlike the COVID-19 pandemic, where individual citizens could do nothing but ask their governments to vaccinate them, in the case of dengue, much depends on the actions of individual citizens,” Paes said. Stated.
Brazil approved a dengue vaccine in March 2023, making it the first country in the world to offer dengue vaccines through its public health system, according to the Ministry of Health. More than three million people were due to receive the jab in 2024.
