According to projections by the Jalisco Health Secretariat (SSJ), more than 16,000 new cases of dengue could be added to the current 1,751 cases during the last four months of 2020, which would create a new record of infections in the State.
Carlos Armando Ruíz Esparza Macías, director of Prevention and Health Promotion, reported that they carried out the projection based on the incidence reported in recent years.
He argues that 2020 “is atypical” because it began with a high circulation of the virus, which is why they have focused their work on containing the increase in cases with the work of the brigades for larval control, discharging and fumigation.
“The projection is to reach 18 thousand accumulated confirmed cases, when last year we closed with 11,927. The projection is to have an increase, but we are doing everything possible not to reach that number.”
Eduardo Rodríguez Noriega, head of Infectious Diseases at the Hospital Civil de Guadalajara “Fray Antonio Alcalde”, stresses that the increase will be around 15%, an increase that will also be reflected in deaths.
He adds that the appearance of COVID-19 is a variant to consider since the symptoms of both diseases can be confused and there are co-infections.
Although there is a vaccine to immunize against dengue, the effectiveness of the vaccine is questioned, since it does not protect against the four variants of the virus and has caused serious reactions in patients in cases of reinfection.
Carlos Armando Ruíz Esparza, director of Prevention and Health Promotion in Jalisco, indicates that the vaccine would be applied to protect only against one serotype and causes the risk of more serious cases if the patient is infected with another variant of the pathogen.
“It was found that those people who had not received a previous infection with the virus and were vaccinated and later infected with another serotype could have a more serious reaction. That is why this vaccine is not available in Mexico ”.
