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Biosecurity News in Brief
Brazil Struggles to Control Dengue EpidemicBy Kunal Rambhia, March 28, 2008 On March 25, 2008, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) reported that an ongoing epidemic of dengue fever in Brazil has resulted in 32,000 infections and 49 deaths so far this year, with most cases occurring in the capital city of Rio de Janeiro. Approximately 50 additional deaths are still under investigation. Media reports have indicated that between March 17 and 18 approximately 1,100 cases of dengue were reported—up to 80 cases reported every hour during that time. In response to the current outbreak, “Brazil’s Ministry of Health announced that it had established a dedicated crisis task force to tackle the epidemic.”1 The ECDC report notes that “Paraguay and other countries in Latin America have also been experiencing large outbreaks of dengue fever in recent months.”1 In a related report on March 23, The Earth Times noted that demonstrators have criticized “inaction of officials and inadequate treatment offered in public hospitals.”2 Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim stated that “the military plans to start erecting tented clinics” to help ease the strain on the hospitals.2 In related news, on March 24 Pro Med Mail reported that Brazilian officials are “spraying insecticides and eliminating puddles of standing water” to help control the dengue outbreak.3 Furthermore, the size of the outbreak may be underestimated, as doctors in hospital emergency rooms are too overwhelmed to report the accurate number of cases to health officials. Edmilson Migovski, infectious disease professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, noted that “the death toll is rising because the virus is becoming more virulent, and at the same time, people who were infected once are getting infected again.”3 Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne illness that causes flu like symptoms including “severe headaches with pain behind the orbits of the eyes, severe muscle and joint pain, nausea and vomiting.”1 There are four strains of the virus, and all strains can result in a more severe hemorrhagic form of the disease. There is no vaccine or antiviral treatment for dengue fever, and preventative measures to avoid mosquito bites are essential to stopping the outbreak. Outbreaks of dengue fever in Brazil generally coincide with the rainy season between January and May. In 2007, Brazil experienced more than 500,000 dengue fever infections and more than 150 deaths, which account for more than half of the cases and deaths in the Americas.3 References
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