Brazil's fight against dengue: A race against time

[Judi Lynn]

The number of dengue virus infections in Brazil has gone up 600% in 2019. Our report from the state of Sergipe looks at why the fight against the illness and its carrier, the tiger mosquito, is so difficult.



Vanesca Barbosa holds up a map of the Palestina neighborhood of Aracaju, the state capital of Sergipe, in northeastern Brazil. The health department official says she and her team will visit each site marked with a red dot. These mark spots where the Egyptian tiger mosquito may breed: "Buckets, tubs, sinks, water tanks, anywhere water can collect. Eighty percent of the problems come from people's homes," says Barbosa.

The Egyptian tiger mosquito (Aedes aegypti), also known as the yellow fever mosquito, is a disease vector for viruses such as chikungunya, Zika, and dengue. All three viruses are spreading across Brazil, but foremost among them is dengue. Since the start of the year, some 1.4 million cases have been registered across the country, six times as many as the same time period last year.



Maps made using drones help the
Aracaju health authority

A few days ago, a team from the city's environmental agency flew drones over this impoverished neighborhood on the fringe of the city. They pieced together 989 photos to create the map that Barbosa is using. Now, a team of 120 people — 50 from the city health authority and 70 city street cleaners — are going house-to-house to inspect the individual sites.

Workers pull old sofas, tires and plastic refuse from Elaine Lorenco's yard. The 32-year-old says her neighbors threw it over her fence. "We keep asking them to stop throwing garbage into our yard, but they do anyhow — in the middle of the night or before dawn." Water collected in such refuse is a perfect breeding ground for the tiger mosquito.

More:
https://www.dw.com/en/brazils-fight-against-dengue-a-race-against-time/a-50530195