How to fight Dengue fever

Dengue fever transmitting mosquito has revealed a high capacity to adapt to the environment created by the accelerated urbanization and the new habits of the population.

Dengue is an acute, febrile illness caused by a benign evolution virus in most cases. Its major vector is the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which breeds in tropical and subtropical areas.

The virus that causes the disease has four serum types: DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3 and DEN-4. When infected, a person becomes permanently immune against the virus he or she was infected with, and temporarily against the other three.

There are two forms of dengue: the classic and hemorrhagic. The first is usually characterized by fever, headache, pain all over the body, in the joints, and behind the eyes, and can affect both children and adults, rarely leading to death. Hemorrhagic dengue is the most severe form of the disease, with the aforementioned symptoms, added by possible bleeding, leading to shock and death.

The biggest problems is how to fight the Aedes aegypti mosquito as it breeds on any recipient used for the storage of water in areas both shaded and exposed to sunlight.

Prevention and measures to fight it require the participation and mobilization of the entire community with the adoption of simple actions such as preventing the accumulation of clean water at home, in order to sever the transmission and contamination cycle.

Otherwise, the isolated actions may not suffice to eradicate the origins of the disease. In the eventuality of a dengue epidemic in a community or in a city, there is the need to implement control measures such as the use of insecticides applied by fume or nebulization vehicles in order to reduce the number of adult mosquitoes, which are the vectors, and interrupt the propagation of the epidemic.

Programs

In 1996, the Department of Health proposed the Aedes aegypti Eradication Program, with the participation of the three government levels: federal, state and municipal.

In 2002, the National Dengue Control Program was implemented. Among the major measures were the creation of permanent programs to fight the disease, the development of information campaigns and social mobilization, the strengthening of epidemiological and entomological monitoring for the early detection of surges of the disease, and the development of more effective tools to supervise and monitor the actions developed by the Ministry of Health.

Source:
Ministry of Health (content in portuguese)

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