Dengue: city halls, state and Health disagree on data – 02/02/2024 – Health

The government of São Paulo, municipal administrations of the state and the Ministry of Health present different data on deaths from dengue in 2024.

Last Saturday (27), the State Department of Health announced the death of four people from the disease: one in Bebedouro, one in Jacareí and two in Pindamonhangaba.

According to the ministry, the records referred to January 20th, when the state had 10,728 cases of dengue. The following week, the municipalities of Bebedouro, Jacareí and Dois Córregos confirmed another three deaths, increasing the total number of fatal cases to seven.

The bulletin sent to Sheet on Wednesday (31), however, it did not indicate new cases and reduced the number of victims from four to three.

“In the first four epidemiological weeks [até 27 de janeiro]19,243 cases of dengue were confirmed and, unfortunately, 3 deaths were recorded”, said the ministry.

The secretariat reported that Jacareí had removed a fatal case from Sinan (Notifiable Diseases Information System), a platform on which cities communicate information about notifiable diseases, including dengue, to the Ministry of Health.

Jacareí city hall, however, denied the change. “The municipality has two deaths from dengue confirmed to date”, stated the municipal administration.

It is through Sinan that the state government has verified the occurrence of the disease. The system is also the source of data presented by the Ministry of Health in the arbovirus case update panel.

According to the panel, this Friday (2), the state of São Paulo recorded three confirmed deaths and 22 under investigation. There were 41,151 reported cases, 57% of them (23,622) confirmed.

The fatal cases were reported in Bebedouro (1) and Pindamonhangaba (2). Jacareí appeared with one death under investigation and Dois Córregos with none.

Pindamonhangaba, however, stated this Friday (2) that the municipality had no deaths from dengue in 2024.

According to the city hall, there were two deaths related to the disease on December 14th and 27th, 2023 and the report certifying the cause of the deaths was sent by the Adolfo Lutz Institute in January of this year.

In addition, there are two other fatal cases recorded in recent days, but these are still under investigation, according to the municipality.

When questioned, the state secretariat stated that data on cases and deaths from arboviruses, such as dengue, chikungunya and zika, are reported on Sinan Online exclusively by city halls.

“The state, in turn, consults and stratifies the banks filled by municipal epidemiological surveillance and, by the fourth epidemiological week of 2024, three deaths from dengue fever have been confirmed by the municipalities, two in Pindamonhangaba and one in the municipality of Bebedouro” , he said.

In view of the divergence, the city of Pindamonhangaba informed that it intends to check internally whether there was an error in filling out the Sinan page. The technical area of ​​the state secretariat must also contact the municipality to find out what happened.