São Paulo has the highest number of deaths from dengue in 8 years – 07/25/2023 – Health

The number of deaths from dengue in the city of São Paulo, from January to July 13, 2023, is the highest in eight years, according to data from Covisa (Health Surveillance Coordination), an agency linked to the Municipal Health Secretariat.

In 2023, during the period, ten people lost their lives to the disease. In the epidemic year 2015, also from January to July, there were 25 deaths; in 2016, the city of São Paulo had eight deaths.

Regarding cases of local transmission of dengue, from January 1st to July 13th of this year, the municipality totaled 11,444. The number is 3.7% higher than that recorded in the same period of 2022, when there were 11,032 confirmations of the disease.

The growth was 62%, compared to the same period in 2021 (7,061 cases) and 509.37%, compared to 2020 (1,878), years of the Covid pandemic.

In the city, the CI (incidence coefficient) —the Ministry of Health’s criterion for classifying this type of disease in relation to the population— is 95.7, very close to what an average level of incidence per 100,000 inhabitants means. Values ​​above 300 are considered epidemic – Vila Guilherme, in the north zone, has 329.6.

For Álvaro Costa, director of the São Paulo Society of Infectology, dengue should be a year-round concern.

“Unfortunately, in recent years, we have seen an increase in cases and deaths from dengue in Brazil in a way that goes a little against that story that the disease was more concentrated in a few months. We are seeing cases outside the usual periods”, he says.

“We are paying a price for unbridled urbanization, population conglomerates, accumulation of stagnant water, lack of vector control, we do not have a vaccine available for dengue in the SUS. All of this contributes to the disease always being endemic and increasingly serious”, he comments.

The coordinator of Covisa, Luiz Artur Caldeira, explains that, in the city of São Paulo, this time there was an advance in seasonality, that is, cases began to occur two months earlier than expected — a different scenario from previous years.

“The increase in cases and mosquitoes is proportional and occurs in March, April and May, when we still have rain and heat.

“It is still not possible to say whether the mosquito is changing its behavior or the reason is related to other factors, such as the climate”, says Caldeira, noting that the end of seasonality, with the arrival of the cold and the end of the rainy season, occurs as expected.

Caldeira says that the city followed the trend and anticipated actions to intensify the fight against the mosquito to January aedes aegyptiwhich usually start in March.

Combating the disease vector is the focus of the work in the first semester. In winter, when mosquito proliferation drops, an assessment of larval density is carried out. The city’s zoonosis teams search for water containers and collect the larvae for evaluation.

“With this work we can observe in which parts of the city we still have proliferation of Aedes and also if there are contaminated mosquitoes in any region. With that, we were able to direct the preventive actions for November and December, which is the house-to-house —mainly for guidance and prevention.

State of SP has 293,700 cases of dengue, with 245 deaths

Until July 14, 245 people died from dengue in the state —9.59% less than the same period of the previous year, when 271 people lost their lives to the disease.

Presidente Prudente, Taquaritinga, São Paulo, Bauru, Ribeirão Preto and Lins are the municipalities with the most deaths, according to data from the State Health Department.

Regarding the cases, there were 293,748. The number represents a reduction of approximately 6% compared to last year, when it totaled 312,800 occurrences.

In 2023, the cities with the most cases of dengue in the state are Presidente Prudente, Bauru, São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto and Campinas.

Elderly and chronically ill people can have severe dengue

Dengue is an acute febrile infectious disease transmitted by mosquitoes. aedes aegypti. It can be benign or serious.

The main symptoms are high fever —above 38°C—, pain in the body, head, behind the eyes and joints, malaise, lack of appetite and red spots on the body.

Significant abdominal pain, bleeding, drowsiness, mental confusion, neurological changes, lowered level of consciousness, decreased diuresis and hypothermia indicate the severity of the disease. If benign, in most cases it is cured with hydration.

“Elderly people and people with comorbidities are more likely to progress to the most serious form of the disease”, explains infectologist Álvaro Costa.