Rio De Janeiro,(Xinhua) Brazilian Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporao has formally declared a dengue epidemic.
By September, the government had recorded 480,000 cases of dengue fever, a 50 percent increase from the same period last year.
“This is an epidemic. I can hardly believe that 121 people have already died this year. I would say that we are losing the war against this illness,” Gomes Temporao said Tuesday.
The situation is alarming as three of dengue’s four existing variants are currently spreading in Brazil. The deadliest type was unknown in Brazil before 2000, said Gomes Temporao.
“It is a disease that can kill and will only be battled properly when there is widespread mobilization from society,” he told media.
So far this year 121 Brazilians have died of dengue and 1,076 were carrying the most deadly variant of dengue.
The Mato Grosso do Sul state in western central Brazil has suffered the worst with 72,000 cases. Sao Paulo has 64,000 cases, and Rio de Janeiro has 51,000.
The health ministry decided Tuesday to launch an anti-dengue campaign aimed at checking the spread of the disease before the rainy season, when the Aedes Aegypti mosquito that transmits dengue reproduces most, said Gomes Temporao.
The campaign motto “Fighting dengue is my, your and everyone’s duty” will be broadcast from Nov 4 until March 2008.
A bout of dengue fever immunizes the victim from the particular variant of dengue that has infected him/her, but leaves the victim vulnerable to new infections from other variants. The second infection tends to be much more aggressive than the former one, with symptoms like severe internal bleeding as blood vessels collapse. Dengue’s hemorrhagic variant usually kills 20 percent of its victims.