Among emergency measures to be taken against dengue fever, the Brazilian government is considering mobilizing troops to fight the epidemic that has made more than 32,000 people ill in the state of Rio de Janeiro.
At a meeting held on Monday in the city of Rio de Janeiro, officials from the federal and state governments discussed the possibility of mobilizing army troops in the struggle against dengue, state health officials told reporters.
Defense Minister Nelson Jobim has reportedly expressed his full approval of troops' participation in the campaign.
The federal government has decided to take a package of measures to stop the spread of the ongoing epidemic in the state of Rio, including adding 119 care-worker vacancies and sending 661 health professionals, said on Monday the Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporao.
An individual card allocated to all patients diagnosed with dengue, should be kept with them so that they can use the cards containing their case information to accept further treatment in the future, according to the minister.
Since the beginning of this year, 32,615 cases of dengue fever have been recorded in the state of Rio, most of them in the city of Rio de Janeiro, where at least 31 people were confirmed to have died, 25 of whom were children, newspapers reported on Monday.
Dengue is caused by four closely related viruses and is spread by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, which breeds in still water. Most dengue cases are not fatal, but the hemorrhagic variant, which causes severe internal bleeding as blood vessels collapse, can kill up to 20 percent of its victims.
Source: Xinhua
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