La Paz, 13 Feb. A massive dengue fever campaign in Santa Cruz, Bolivia’s largest city and the epicenter of a strong outbreak of the disease, identified at least 557 suspected cases and involved intervention in 190,675 homes to eliminate breeding grounds. larvae of the transmitting mosquito.
The Minister of Health, Jeyson Auza, indicated that the medical brigades “succeeded in identifying 557 suspected cases of dengue” of which about fifteen were referred to health centers while the others are treated “at home”.
This Sunday, the national, departmental and municipal levels of government held the “Grande Minga”, that is to say the meeting around a common objective, with the deployment of more than 10,000 police, military and security agents. health to destroy the breeding sites of the Aedes .aegypti mosquito, transmitter of the disease.
The work also involved carrying out fumigations and applying larvicides in areas where the vector could be reared.
Auza clarified that during the work carried out in the 12 neighborhoods of Santa Cruz, some 190,675 homes were intervened and the destruction of “nearly a million mosquito breeding sites” was carried out, according to still partial data from the Ministry of health.
The authority in its report said that since the start of the rainy season in the country, there have been 18 deaths from dengue fever and 5,549 cases of the disease in the departments of Santa Cruz (4,106), Beni (770), Tarija (309), La Paz (142), Chuquisaca (113), Pando (55) and Cochabamba (54).
The minister announced that “depending on the level of infestation” operations like the one that took place in Santa Cruz will be carried out.
Dengue fever, transmitted by the bite of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, causes high fever, headaches, vomiting and skin rashes and can be fatal in its hemorrhagic form.
The insect that causes the disease reproduces in periods of frequent rains in the hot and urban areas of Bolivia, below 1,700 meters of altitude, so it takes advantage of any space of stagnant water for its reproduction.