The beaches, backstreets and Carnival energy of Rio de Janeiro. Photo / 123rf
The beaches, backstreets and Carnival energy of Rio de Janeiro. Photo / 123rf
Rio de Janeiro declared a public health emergency because of an outbreak of mosquito-borne dengue fever, the city announced on Monday, days before Carnival celebrations kick off throughout Brazil.
The outbreak wasn’t expected to derail Carnival, which officially starts on Friday evening and runs until February 14, but it has prompted a slew of special measures by the city in hopes of containing the illness.
Rio city hall announced the opening of 10 care centres, the creation of an emergency operations centre and the allocation of hospital beds for dengue patients. Authorities also will use “smoke cars” in regions with the highest incidence of cases, diffusing an insecticide in the air.
Since the start of the year, the municipality has registered more than 10,000 dengue cases. That is just under half the total cases — 23,000 — recorded last year.
The announcement comes as tourists and revellers are pouring into Rio to take part in street parties and attend the samba schools’ flamboyant parades.
Among Rio state’s operational plans for Carnival, presented by Governor Claudio Castro on Monday, is the Against Dengue Every Day campaign. That will entail the distribution of repellents, stickers, bandanas and hats with warnings about the disease to audiences at the Sambadrome, where a 15-second notice about the fight against the infection will be shown.
Dengue patients receive treatment in a provisional clinic in the Santa Maria neighbourhood of Brasilia, Brazil. Photo / AP
Dengue is a viral infection transmitted to humans through the bite of infected mosquitoes and is more common in tropical climates. Frequent rains and high temperatures, which accelerate the hatching of mosquito eggs and the development of larvae, make the famously hot city of Rio susceptible to dengue outbreaks.
But the problem is national. The explosion of dengue cases throughout Brazil has caused at least four states — Acre, Minas Gerais and Goias, in addition to the Federal District — to declare public health emergencies.
On Monday, the Brazilian Air Force set up a 60-bed field hospital in the Federal District in Ceilandia that was due to begin treating patients.
“Our objective is to relieve emergency care units in the region, given that today the Federal District accounts for around 20 per cent of dengue cases in the country,” air force commander Lieutenant Brigadier Marcelo Kanitz Damascene said.
Most people who get dengue don’t develop symptoms, but if they do these can include high fever, headache, body aches, nausea and a rash, according to the World Health Organisation. While most get better after a week or so, some develop a severe form and require hospitalisation. In such cases, dengue can be fatal.
Climate change, which leads to increased temperatures and high rainfall, is associated with a higher risk of dengue, WHO said in December.
Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes urged “cariocas” — as the residents of Rio are known — to eliminate sources of still water, used by mosquitoes as breeding grounds.
“Unlike the Covid-19 pandemic, in which individual citizens couldn’t do much more than demand that governments get the vaccine, in the case of dengue much depends on the action of each citizen,” Paes said.
In March, Brazil approved a vaccine against dengue and became the first country in the world to offer a dengue vaccine through the public health system, according to the health ministry. More than 3 million people were due to receive a jab this year.
