Brazil declares a state of emergency due to a rise in dengue fever cases, just as millions of tourists from around the world arrive for the Rio Carnival

Rio de Janeiro has declared a state of emergency amid rising cases of dengue fever, just as millions of tourists are set to arrive in Brazil for the city’s famous Carnival.

Meanwhile, Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, opened an emergency operations center on Tuesday to cope with the growing number of infections.

Cases of the mosquito-borne disease have also risen sharply in Argentina, where a record 10,000 cases were reported in the first three weeks of the year.

Paraguay has now declared a public health emergency due to dengue. Since December, 36 deaths have been recorded, including 12 children, officials there said.

Rio de Janeiro declared a public health emergency on Monday, four days before the official opening of its famous carnival.

Authorities announced the opening of ten special treatment centers to ease pressure on Rio’s overwhelmed hospitals.

Authorities will also deploy ‘smoke cars’ in regions with the highest number of cases, dispersing an insecticide into the air.

‘It’s a good thing they opened this centre. The hospitals cannot handle the situation alone,” patient Luciana Ferreira told AFP in the working-class Curicica district.

Since the beginning of 2024, the municipality has recorded more than 10,000 cases of dengue. That is just under half of the total number of cases – 23,000 – recorded throughout 2023.

The announcement comes as tourists and partygoers flood into Rio to take part in street parties and attend the flamboyant parades of the samba schools.

Rio State’s operational plans for Carnival, presented Monday by Governor Cláudio Castro, include the “Every Day Against Dengue” campaign.

This will involve distributing insect repellents, stickers, bandanas and hats with warnings about the disease to the public at the Sambadrome, where a 15-second announcement about the fight against the infection will also be shown.

Rio de Janeiro declared a public health emergency on Monday, four days before the official opening of its famous Carnival, where millions of people will descend on the city

Rio State’s operational plans for Carnival, presented Monday by Governor Cláudio Castro, include the ‘Against Dengue Every Day’ campaign.

Dengue is a viral infection transmitted to humans through the bite of infected mosquitoes and is more common in tropical climates.

Frequent rainfall and high temperatures, which accelerate the hatching of mosquito eggs and the development of larvae, make the famously hot city of Rio prone to dengue outbreaks.

But the problem is national. The explosion of dengue cases across Brazil has led at least four states – Acre, Minas Gerais and Goias, in addition to the Federal District – to declare public health emergencies.

The capital Brasilia has opened an emergency field hospital.

Thirty-one people have died from dengue, according to Brazil’s Health Ministry, which is analyzing another 234 deaths that may also have been caused by the disease.

Sao Paulo is testing a drone that uses larvicide to combat mosquitoes in hard-to-reach areas.

A patient is taken to a hospital after receiving medical care at a makeshift military aid station set up to treat suspected cases of dengue fever in Brazil, February 6

Patients visit a makeshift military aid station set up to treat suspected cases of dengue fever in the Ceilandia administrative region, on the outskirts of Brasilia, on February 6.

A doctor visits a patient at the dengue emergency room in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on February 6

Brazil plans to launch a public vaccination campaign against dengue this month – although a lack of doses from the vaccine’s maker, Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda, means only children aged 10 to 14 will be targeted.

The Brazilian government says it is exploring options to produce a dengue vaccine domestically.

In March 2023, Brazil approved a dengue vaccine, becoming the first country in the world to offer a dengue vaccine through its public health system, according to the Ministry of Health.

More than 3 million people would receive a shot in 2024.

On Monday, the Brazilian Air Force set up a 60-bed field hospital in the Federal District in Ceilandia, which would treat patients.

“Our goal is to decongest emergency units in the region, as the Federal District today accounts for approximately 20 percent of dengue cases in the country,” said Air Force Commander Lt. Brig. Marcelo Kanitz Damascene said in a statement.

Dengue, which can cause hemorrhagic fever, infects an estimated 100 million to 400 million people annually, although most cases are mild or asymptomatic, according to the World Health Organization.

Most people who get dengue don’t develop symptoms, but if they do, they can include high fever, headache, body aches, nausea and rash, according to the World Health Organization.

A municipal worker disinfects during an operation aimed at eradicating the Aedes aegypti mosquito – which transmits Dengue fever – in Asuncion, Paraguay, on January 26

While most get better after about a week, some develop a severe form and require hospitalization. In such cases, dengue can be fatal.

Climate change, which leads to higher temperatures and high rainfall, is associated with a higher risk of dengue, the WHO said in December.

Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes called on ‘cariocas’ – as Rio residents are known – to eliminate sources of stagnant water, which are used as breeding grounds by mosquitoes.

“Unlike the COVID-19 pandemic, where individual citizens could not do much more than demand that governments get the vaccine, in the case of dengue a lot depends on the action of each citizen,” Paes said.