Compared to the same period last year the number of reported cases of dengue in the Federal District in Brazil this year is up eight times. The DF Secretariat of Health says that 4,294 cases have been reported since the beginning of the year.
From these, 1,956 cases have been confirmed as dengue. This compares to 547 cases, 112 of which confirmed, during the same period in 2009.
The area with the highest number of confirmed cases is a surprise: Asa Norte, an affluent neighborhood that is part of central Brasília, which has registered 588 cases.
The other areas with high numbers of cases are outside the central region of the nation’s capital: Planaltina (299 cases), Itapoã (256), São Sebastião (127), Paranoá (99) and Guará (87).
Health authorities report that army soldiers are being trained to assist in combating the disease. Last week 200 soldiers underwent four days of special training and will now join 384 “environment agents” to combat the mosquitoes and inform the public of the danger and how to deal with it.
“We know where the highest concentrations of the mosquito that causes dengue are located and we will attack them with specially trained personnel and assistance from the local communities so we can win this war. We have to be 100% efficient about eliminating the causes of dengue,” declared Allan Kardec, the sub secretary of Disease Control.
Three officials of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), based in Brasilia, contracted dengue and three more are under suspicion, according to the spokesperson for that office.
The place is in a residential neighborhood in Brasília’s Lago Sul (South Lake), where there have been several cases of the disease. According to the organization, surveillance teams have been activated to investigate the incidence of outbreaks of the Aedes aegipty mosquito.
ABr/Bzz
