Argentina experiences an explosion in dengue cases – 02/22/2024 – Balance and Health

In the streets, people walk around slapping each other. On television, reporters recommend avoiding going out at dusk and using sweat-proof repellents. In pharmacies, the product is often out of stock or sold at exorbitant prices.

Like Brazil, Argentina has experienced an explosion in dengue cases in recent months, coupled with an invasion of mosquitoes in Greater Buenos Aires since last weekend. A black cloud of mosquitoes was filmed approaching the capital, after the heat and rain that fell in the region last week.

Experts explain that the invaders are of the species Psorophora ciliata and are not associated with Aedes aegyptiwhich transmits dengue fever, but the fact contributed to raising alarms for a possible spike in the disease and reinforced the recommendations for using repellent and eliminating sources of stagnant water.

The country registered 48,366 suspected or confirmed cases from August 2023 to the beginning of February, according to the latest bulletin from the local Ministry of Health. In the same period of the previous year, notifications did not even reach a thousand. 35 deaths have been recorded so far.

“Until last week, anyone who came in with a fever asked for a test, and everyone was positive. Now, we’re going to start diagnosing just by epidemiological link.” [sintomas e histórico do paciente]”, says Daniela Gill, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of Rosario, the third largest city in Argentina.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) issued an epidemiological alert on Friday (16) due to a general increase in dengue fever in the Americas region.

In the Southern Cone, a region that covers Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, there was a 254% increase in the notification of suspected cases in the first five weeks of the year, in relation to the average of the previous five years in this period. In Brazil, the increase was 218%.

For now, the Argentine health network is coping with demand. The most affected area is on the border with Brazil and Paraguay, such as the province of Missiones, where the local government began expanding the so-called Brief Hospitalization Units in hospitals last Friday.

“We classify febrile groups as having mild, moderate or more severe impact. UHBs are for patients with moderate impact, who will find temporary treatment in these facilities for their acute clinical condition”, explained the director of epidemiology, Javier Ramírez, to the press.

Hospitalizations last up to six hours, so that the patient receives fluids and has blood pressure and temperature controlled, which will determine whether it is advisable for the person to go home, for example, and then return to repeat the control in 24 hours.

According to him, this is part of a third phase of the integrated management plan against dengue, the first phase being management actions against the mosquito, with cleaning in places with stagnant water, and the second, the active search for feverish patients. in the territory and care in health units.

“There has been no stress so far at a health level, but as we know that dengue fever occurs exponentially, there will be times when the number of cases will exceed operational capacity”, warns Analía Chumpitaz, director of promotion and prevention in the province of Santa Fe.

It draws attention to the critical moment that Argentina is going through, socially and economically, with the highest interannual inflation in the world, at 254%. “The situation is more critical regarding inputs, workers, and this obviously has repercussions on the care system, despite having a robust system,” she says.

The latest epidemiological bulletin indicates that cases that were concentrated in the border region are now beginning to spread downwards: towards the Center of the country, which includes the capital and the provinces of Buenos Aires, Córdoba and Santa Fé, and to the Northwest, in places like Jujuy and Salta. In the South, cases are still isolated.

Argentine authorities highlight that dengue arrived earlier this season, with a sustained increase in notifications since September, and that it persisted even in winter. Infectious disease specialist Daniela Gill also highlights an increase in hospitalizations of young people.

“We only had two months without cases. We are heading towards an endemic scenario, as is the case throughout the tropical and subtropical region, that is, with cases every month of the year. This, obviously, is due to climate change and increasingly hot temperatures. higher,” says epidemiologist Analía Chumpitaz.

Unlike Brazil, where 5 million doses of the new dengue vaccine are being distributed in the public network, Argentina and Paraguay only have the vaccine in the private network. The cost is 70,842 pesos (around R$320 at parallel prices), a prohibitive price for a large part of the population.