Dengue cases in Jalisco nearly double over last year

The cases of dengue in Jalisco have doubled compared to last year. In the first week of October 2017 there were 568 infections, during the same period of 2018 there were 1,023 cases reported.

The Secretary of State Health, Alfonso Petersen Farah, indicated that this season is the most complicated in terms of the risk of new cases.

“Without a doubt, the most critical months are September and October. On the one hand, we have more humidity, heat, and a higher distribution of the mosquito. From November and December the prevalence begins to fall as a consequence of the cold, which considerably limits the activity of the mosco,” said the official.

Last August, the unit launched the campaign “We are all brigadistas” with the aim of preventing and taking action against the diseases transmitted by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, since it is not only dengue, but also Zika and Chikungunya.

“It’s exactly (the cases) that we expected. The reason is that we know very well that dengue has a cyclical behavior. It has waves, say, every two years, where its presence increases, ” explained Petersen Farah.

Growing reluctance to let dengue brigades enter homes

In recent years, staff of the Jalisco Health Secretariat (SSJ) began to notice an increase in reluctance on the part of the people to allow the entry of brigadistas against dengue to their homes, which check that there are no pots in the patios, possible mosquito breeding sites and do preventive tasks against the disease.

While five years ago there was a coverage of 70% of the houses visited in the different neighborhoods of the city, now there is an index of between 42% and 45%.

The doctor assigned to the Directorate of Prevention and Control of Diseases of the SSJ, Salvador García Hernández, said that although the fact of not being able to enter a house may be due to different factors, two of the most important at the moment are distrust and that the people work all day and there is no one at home when the workers arrive.

In the specific issue of distrust that prevails in the population, he noted that the increase in insecurity has influenced and certain cases of people who have passed themselves off as brigadistas and enter the houses with the intention of committing some crime.

The official pointed out the risks involved in preventing people from entering the brigadistas to carry out their preventive actions, because not only is this family protected, but the entire colony.

The mosquito has a flight range of 200 meters, so if it has the infection it can infect not only the inhabitants of one dwelling, but several.