Deaths in the area reinforce the alert for preventive measures against dengue fever in Futupuranga

from the editing room

The death of young Larissa da Silva Lima from dengue hemorrhagic fever, aged only 22, a resident of Alvarez Florence, reinforced the alarm issued more than three months ago regarding the need to strengthen prevention measures against the disease. In October last year, the State Ministry of Health issued a statement to all municipalities in São Paulo warning of the risk of a new epidemic of dengue fever and more serious symptoms, which were confirmed in the first days of 2023.

Since the notification, the Minister of Health of the Municipality of Futuporanga, through environmental monitoring, has intensified measures to combat the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which transmits the disease, including the strengthening of community health workers who were also involved in this task. But the support of the population in this work is essential.

“Since July we have started Arrastão, which are home visits to instruct residents about precautions to be taken to prevent the spread of mosquitoes. Our teams also check the properties in search of breeding sites until they are eliminated, but this responsibility must be the responsibility of every citizen and it must be done every day, especially in this period in which we enter with greater amounts of rain, ”explained the head of monitoring, Minister of Health, Samara Del Pino Fernandez.

According to the latest update from the Municipal Health Department, Fotoporanga ended 2022 with 14,177 notifications of suspected dengue cases and 10,042 positive cases, four of which resulted in death, including a three-year-old child. This year there have been 108 notifications of the disease, but no cases have been confirmed yet.

symptoms

In addition to dengue, the Aedes aegypti mosquito also transmits Chikungunya and Zika and all the symptoms are the same. According to the Ministry of Health, the classic signs are: sudden onset of fever accompanied by headache, body and joint pain, prostration, weakness, pain behind the eyes, rash, itchy skin, red spots on the body, as well as nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain.

The tendency is for residents to seek the unit or health service closest to their place of residence as soon as the first symptoms appear.

protection

As everyone knows, prevention is the best way to fight the disease. Avoiding standing water, emptying bottles, not storing tires in exposed areas, not piling water on baseboards or gutters, putting sand in plant pots and covering barrels and water tanks are some of the basic initiatives to prevent the spread of mosquitoes. Every place with standing water, where the vector mosquito lays its eggs, should be eliminated.