MG leads dengue cases and posts open until Saturdays – 03/22/2023 – Health

An increase in probable cases of dengue in Minas Gerais in the first months of 2023, compared to the same period last year, forced city halls to open health units on weekends, declare a state of emergency and launch operations to combat dengue outbreaks. aedes aegypti.

According to the most recent survey by the Ministry of Health, released on March 5, there are 67,220 probable cases of dengue in the state. The number is more than seven times that recorded in the same period last year, when 8,648 probable cases of the disease were reported.

As for deaths from dengue, there are 6 confirmed deaths in the state this year.

The report asked the government of Minas Gerais for information about the spread of dengue in the state in the morning of the 17th and in the afternoon of the 21st, but received no response.

The spread of the disease across the country led the federal government to create an emergency center.

Dengue numbers in Minas Gerais place the state in the national leadership of probable cases of the disease. In second place is the state of São Paulo, with 50,957 probable cases of dengue by March 2023.

In the data that consider the number of cases per 100,000 inhabitants, Minas Gerais appears in third place, with 313.9 records, behind Espírito Santo (768.3) and Mato Grosso do Sul (338.9). Last year, Minas ranked 12th, with 37.7 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

Faced with the situation, health units that operate only on weekdays in Belo Horizonte and Betim, in the metropolitan region, are opening on weekends to assist those with symptoms of the disease.

In the capital, two health units were put into operation last Saturday (18). According to the city hall, the decision is part of a contingency plan that can be expanded as necessary. In Betim, which already has 415 confirmed cases this year —in 2022 there were 268 records in the period—, five basic health units in regions where there is a higher incidence of the disease started to open on Saturdays

With symptoms that may be due to the disease, the day laborer Ivanir dos Santos Miranda, 58, was waiting for medical attention this Tuesday (21) at the UPA (Emergency Care Unit) in Venda Nova, in the northern region of Belo Horizonte.

In the same queue was office assistant Caroline da Silva Gonçalves, 23, also suspected of having dengue. “Worst of all is the headache,” she said. Other symptoms of dengue are fever, vomiting and body aches.

A stoppage of municipal public servants on the same day affected the operation of the unit. According to a report by the city hall, of the 21,420 servers of the SUS (Sistema Único de Saúde) in Belo Horizonte, 2.54% joined the strike.

The number of attendances of suspected cases of dengue in health centers in the capital has been increasing progressively and more than doubled from one week to another, going from 614 (in epidemiological week 8) to 1,358 (in week 9).

By March, Belo Horizonte City Hall agents had already carried out 240,000 home visits in search of outbreaks of the mosquito that transmits dengue.

The Lira (Rapid Survey of the Aedes aegypti Infestation Index) completed in October last year showed that 83.3% of the mosquito outbreaks in the city were in the home environment, especially in small plates of plants (26.5%), containers domestic (10.2%), barrels/drums (7.5%) and tires (6.3%).

COUNT DECREE EMERGENCY

In Contagem, also in the metropolitan region, an emergency situation was declared for 120 days. The municipality already has 127 confirmed cases of dengue this year, a number that corresponds to 51% of all records of the disease in 2022.

“The decree of emergency situation in public health guarantees the municipal manager a faster acquisition of supplies and medicines”, says the city hall, in a note.

“If there wasn’t this flexibility, it would be more complicated to fight the disease”, said the municipal secretary of health, Fabrício Simões. For him, two factors contributed to the rise in dengue cases: the large volume of rain and carelessness in the fight against the mosquito by the population, while attention was more focused on Covid.

“The mosquito is always around, waiting for us to falter”, said Simões.

To try to curb the disease, the municipality of Contagem is preparing to issue 9,500 notifications to owners of vacant lots, with a forecast fine of up to R$ 1,600.