BH enters dengue epidemic situation

Health

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Dengue is an infectious disease whose virus is transmitted by the bite of the Aedes aegypti mosquito (Agência Brasil/Arquivo)

Belo Horizonte entered a dengue epidemic situation due to the significant increase in cases of the disease. According to PBH, the incidence is around 484.6 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants. The World Health Organization (WHO) considers that rates above 300 cases per 100,000 inhabitants constitute an epidemic situation.

To date, 1,952 cases of dengue fever and three deaths have been confirmed in the capital. Starting this Thursday (8), the processing of PCR test samples, for the diagnosis of dengue, chikungunya and zika, will begin to be carried out in the Molecular Biology sector of the Municipal Reference Laboratory, of the City of Belo Horizonte.

According to PBH, this is a strategy to speed up results, “ensuring timely treatment and care”. The capacity is 200 analyzes per day and this quantity will be gradually increased.

For the municipal secretary of Health of Belo Horizonte, Danilo Borges Matias, the population’s collaboration in actions to prevent Aedes aegypti is essential.

“We monitor the situation in the capital on a daily basis, the number of confirmed cases and the pressure on care in the health units of the SUS-BH network that care for people with dengue symptoms. However, I emphasize again that everyone’s help is needed to eliminate, from inside homes, any possible containers that accumulate water and could encourage mosquito breeding. This way, we would be able to reduce the curve of cases in Belo Horizonte”, he clarified.

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Expansion of service locations

According to the city hall, to date, six specific units have been opened to exclusively serve people with symptoms of dengue, chikungunya and zika. There are three Arbovirus Service Centers (CAAs), open from 7am to 10pm, in the Barreiro, Center-South and Venda Nova regions. This equipment is open door and spontaneously offers care to people who present symptoms such as fever, pain in the body or behind the eyes and red spots on the skin.

The Volume Replacement Units (URV) operate every day, for 24 hours, in the Center-South and Venda Nova regions. The locations exclusively receive users referred from health centers and CAAs and who need hydration and continuous assistance. In other words, it is not an open door service. There is also another URV at Hospital Júlia Kubitschek, in Barreiro, which was opened in partnership with Fhemig and serves users from 7am to 7pm.