Clipping of news on Brazilian Culture, Law and Citizenship
30/12/2014
This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.
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Paula Laboissière - Reporter Brazil Edition Agency: Talita Cavalcante
In the road of Brasilia, officials from the Environmental Surveillance Secretariat distributed educational brochures on D-Day to Combat Dengue and Chikungunya (Elza Fiuza / Agency Brazil)
By 15 November, the Ministry of Health had already identified 1,364 cases of chikungunya in paísElza Fiuza / Agency Brazil
The chikungunya fever was in Brazil for the first time in September this year. According to the latest balance sheet of the Ministry of Health (the 15th of November), 1,364 cases had been identified in the country, with 71 imported and 1,293 diagnosed in people without international travel log for places where there is transmission.
The disease, caused by a virus of the genus Alphavirus, is transmitted primarily by Aedes aegypti, which transmits dengue, and by Aedes albopictus. Symptoms include high fever, muscle pain, joint and head, and red spots in the body, which usually last from three to ten days. The mortality rate, according to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), is rare and less frequent than in dengue cases.
To prevent transmission of the virus, the orientation of the ministry is that people strengthen action to eliminate mosquito breeding sites. The measures are the same as for the control of dengue: check that the water tank is closed, not accumulate containers in the yard, check if the gutters are clogged and put sand on the plates of plant pots.
Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) indicate that since 2004, chikungunya had been identified in 19 countries. From the end of 2013, however, was recorded autochthonous transmission (within the same territory) in several Caribbean countries, and this year, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Until then, only Africa and Asia had virus circulation record.
Since cases were confirmed in the Caribbean, the Brazilian government has drawn up a national plan of disease contingency, with the goals of enhancing surveillance activities, the preparation of the health system response, training of professionals, outreach measures to departments besides furnishing reference laboratories for diagnostic purposes.
Also cases of prevention and identification measures have been strengthened. In regions with record of chikungunya fever, technical teams were set up by local health departments to guide the search for suspected cases and issue warnings to health facilities and communities. To ensure the control of mosquitoes that transmit the disease, is being held, inter alia, the elimination of breeding.
The recommendation of the ministry is that - once characterized the sustained transmission of chikungunya in a given area, with laboratory confirmation of the first cases - other cases must be confirmed by clinical and epidemiological criteria, which takes into account factors such as symptoms, and the link the patient with people who have contracted the disease.
Source: Agency Brazil
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This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.