Rio de Janeiro Declares Health Emergency as Dengue Virus Grips Brazil Before Carnival

Nurse Ana Soares puts on blue latex gloves and takes the arm of patient Cecilia Davilla (53) and measures her blood pressure. Cecilia’s 8-year-old son is playing next to her with a folder with a picture of an enormous mosquito with long black and white legs. “That’s the culprit!” says the nurse and points to the mosquito. It is the Temples of the Egyptians, a mosquito that occurs in the tropics and is the spreader of, among other things, the dengue virus – known in the Netherlands as dengue fever. This virus is currently gripping Brazil. According to the Ministry of Health, 350,000 people were infected in the first five weeks of this year, forty of whom died. That number is four times higher than dengue cases this time last year.

Authorities have now declared a health emergency in three states, including Rio de Janeiro. Last week, a series of special dengue health posts were set up on the orders of the city’s mayor and capacity in existing hospitals was increased. When one of the posts in the north of the city opens, it quickly fills up with people who have complaints just like Davilla. “Where do you have muscle pain?” a nurse asks Wanderson da Silva, a well-built man. At first he thought the muscle pain was due to a too intensive visit to the gym, but now he has doubts. The nurse puts a thermometer under his armpit and feels his pulse.

Drink water and rest. So definitely don’t celebrate carnival

On the eve of Rio’s famous Carnival, which starts this weekend, authorities have sounded the alarm. In addition to a crowd of Brazilian tourists, it is expected that around 60,000 foreign tourists will come to the samba city for the party. “In non-tropical countries they are not really familiar with dengue, so they can become extra ill. In addition, there are street parties everywhere and the spread can be faster because there are mosquitoes everywhere,” says nurse Ana Soares.

More than ten thousand cases have been registered since January. By comparison, there were 23,000 cases in Rio in all of 2023. With a large-scale campaign, the local government is also trying to call on the population to cooperate in the fight against dengue. “In almost 80 percent of cases, people are bitten at home by the mosquito, which prefers to breed in clean, stagnant water. So at home or in the garden, it is important that no water remains anywhere,” says Daniel Soranz, head of municipal health care. He crosses the city to open one dengue health post after another.

The problem is especially serious in the outskirts of the city and in the hundreds of favelas, the slums, where people get their water from water troughs on the roofs and where the female mosquito easily lays her eggs. The current climate is also ideal for the spread of dengue: the high number of infections is partly caused by El Niño. During this weather phenomenon, which occurs on average every three to four years in South America, among other places, the normally cool sea water of the Pacific Ocean becomes warmer, making it also hotter on land. “The ideal climate for the Aedes aegypti mosquito,” says biologist Joel Henrique Ellwanger, of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. “In addition to the heat, El Niño also causes occasional heavy rains, and that combination is perfect for the mosquito. The fact that El Niño is more extreme this year and causes more heat and more rain than normal is again due to climate change. Everything is more extreme, including this dengue epidemic,” he says.

More than a hundred street parties

With carnival approaching, the government has started spraying more intensively with smoke trucks to eliminate mosquitoes and eggs. Precautions are also being taken in the large stadium in the center of the city, the Sambódromo, where the spectacular parade of the samba schools takes place. During the parade, an information video appears on a screen. And during the more than a hundred street parties, the so-called blocos, that will take place throughout the city in the coming days, free anti-mosquito spray will be distributed. “It would be best if people wore long clothes to reduce their risk. But during Carnival, people prefer to wear as little clothing as possible,” says biologist Ellwanger.

Brazilians can now also be vaccinated against dengue with a vaccine developed in Japan. It will soon be the turn of children between 10 and 14 years old. The number of dengue infections has exploded not only in Brazil but also in other South American countries such as Argentina as a result of El Niño. Ellwanger: “We must also realize that we do not know what kind of climatic changes await us. There are now three dengue variants in circulation. Maybe there will be more. Countries suffer from heat, fires and drought. What kind of new epidemics can we expect? Much is uncertain.”

Cecilia Davilla has now been diagnosed with dengue in the newly opened dengue center. She is given paracetamol and a dose of extra heavy iron tablets. “Drink lots of water, take vitamin C and rest. So absolutely no celebration of carnival,” the nurse says sternly to the patient who leaves the health post with her son in disbelief.

Share Email the editor
2024-02-08 18:59:53
#dengue #virus #spreading #sweltering #Brazil