Fiocruz will produce 600 thousand dengue tests – 02/08/2024 – Health

Fiocruz reported this Thursday (8) that it will double the production of tests for diagnosing dengue, zika and chikungunya. 600,000 kits will be delivered to the Ministry of Health, no longer the 300,000 planned for 2024.

According to the foundation, the current epidemiological situation in the country, with states and municipalities declaring a state of emergency, led to the duplication of the contract. The first tests are expected to be delivered in the coming weeks.

“This initiative aims to strengthen accurate and agile diagnosis, allowing an effective response to diseases transmitted by Aedes aegypti“, said, in a note, Mario Moreira, president of Fiocruz.

In addition to confirming infection by the three viruses, molecular diagnostic tests (RT-PCR) allow identifying the dengue serotype (1, 2, 3 or 4), which makes it possible to analyze the dominant type in different locations.

By the end of this Thursday afternoon, Brazil had 395,103 probable cases of dengue, 23,456 of chikungunya and 341 of zika virus in 2024. At least 57 people have died as a result of the diseases and there are 304 deaths under investigation, according to the monitoring panel of the Ministry of Health.

The platform’s interface is updated daily with the data indicated by the municipalities in Sinan (Notifiable Diseases Information System). This information, however, may be recorded late or even revised, so it is considered provisional.

According to experts consulted by Sheetthe numbers are expected to increase in the coming weeks.

“What we are seeing in the metropolitan region of São Paulo, in Vale do Paraíba, in other places in the Southeast and in Brasília is different from the North and Northeast, where there are few cases and there is no pressure on hospitals. But it will increase. The peak of disease will have different moments”, said David Uip, national director of Infectious Diseases at Rede D’Or and dean of the FMABC University Center (ABC Faculty of Medicine).

This Thursday, the panel indicated a dengue incidence coefficient of 477.2 in the Central-West region; 281.2 in the Southeast; 190.4 in the South; 73.7 in the North and 16.4 in the Northeast.