Rio de Janeiro registers second death from dengue this year and faces possible epidemic
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Rio de Janeiro – The municipal secretary of Health confirmed yesterday, March 20, that a 49 year old woman who lived in the Méier, northern area of the city, died on March 4 of dengue in a private hospital. The secretariat went on to report that she died of dengue virus type 4 (DEN4), which has become the dominant type, appearing in slightly over 76% of all registered cases of dengue so far this year in Rio de Janeiro.
There is concern among health authorities because the height of the dengue season is usually in March, April and May, but the infection rate in recent weeks has already been running at around 70% above last year. Since January, there have been 16,323 cases of dengue reported and, for the year, 24,950.
Márcio Garcia, says that there is a chance of a dengue epidemic. “Looking at the historical record it can be seen that the peak is still ahead of us.”
As for the latest death from dengue, Garcia says there was medical error. The patient should have been treated as a grave risk, but the case was handled as simple dengue. It turns out she was hospitalized on February 27 at a public hospital, but released three days later. Then, she immediately entered a private hospital where she died. According to Garcia, the original classification of risk was incorrect. “What that means is that the clinical process as a whole was wrong. The hydration of the patient, the essential fluid replacement routine did not take place as it should have,” declared Garcia.
Meanwhile, the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes, after admitting the city faces the risk of a dengue epidemic, has been inaugurating dengue treatment centers (“Polo de Dengue”) around the city. The goal is to set up 30 treatment centers, with 10 of them operating 24/7. At the same time, the state Secretariat of Health says it has intensified its efforts to eradicate the Aedes aegypti mosquito, with community health agents visiting over 1.2 million properties so far this year.