Some 300 Brazilian soldiers began Tuesday a 30-day pesticide fumigation program in Rio de Janeiro neighborhoods to stop the spread of mosquitoes that transmit dengue fever, in a new military offensive against the epidemic.
The offensive was launched after soldiers set up three tent hospitals in Rio de Janeiro neighborhoods to attend infected people that were not able to get treatment in hospitals due to the high rate of people infected by dengue.
Soldiers started their work by fumigating Realengo neighborhood, in collaboration with municipal health officials. The fumigation mission aims to wipe out 4,000 dengue infested locations in Rio de Janeiro's western region.
The epidemic has so far caused 60,000 dengue cases, with 68 deaths throughout Rio de Janeiro state.
In 2007, 25,000 dengue cases were reported in Rio de Janeiro, with 26 deaths. In 2002, during the worse dengue epidemic registered, 280,000 people in Rio were infected, with 91 deaths.
The 30-day program by soldiers is the continuation of efforts by 1,200 firemen from the state's Firemen Corps.
However, specialists warned that the fumigation work does not go far enough, as the effects of the pesticides will take 20 days to start working, too much time to avoid the spread of the dengue epidemic.
Source: Xinhua
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