Dengue fever and chikungunya fever have become the new health concerns for those of us who live in Argentina, as the days go by and the official bulletins on the number of positive cases, which are almost always framed in an upward curve.
The origin is known: these are diseases transmitted by a mosquito that hangs around homes and reproduces in places that hold small amounts of water without removing it, such as vases, disused tires, flower pots and all kinds of damp pots and pans.
To raise excessive alarms, it will be necessary to assume that we are not facing a pandemic with devastating humanitarian consequences such as Covid-19, especially in terms of lethality.
However, flu-like states and high fever were a common pattern between both diseases when, at the end of 2019, the coronavirus broke out on a global scale, while in parallel, regions of America were experiencing a historic dengue epidemic.
The experience gained teaches us that no one can be distracted from individual prevention or from the recommendations made by official health agencies. Faced with the first symptoms, early consultation at a medical center is crucial, in the event of possible dengue diagnoses.
However, there are issues that concern public administration. In this context, it is not good news that in the midst of an outbreak of dengue, in Córdoba there is a shortage of insect repellents, among them the Temples of the Egyptianstransmitter of the infection.
It was from the manual that the growth of cases was going to lead to a sustained demand for repellents. But, as often happens with other contingencies in life, we were always late: there was no stock enough of said aerosol product.
As we realize in different reports on this problem, it is not a minor fact that in each control operation among small groups of people, between five and 10 patients with suspected dengue are detected. These are generally people with a fever who did not see a doctor.
To this is added that, until days ago, the Ministry of Health of the province had reported 1,781 cases of dengue during the 2022/2023 season, of which 51 are imported and 1,730 autochthonous.
Another prevention task is fumigation in neighborhood areas of greatest risk, although experts warn that it is an effective resource to eliminate mosquitoes in flight but not so much for larvae and eggs, which continue to develop in wetlands with excesses of odds and ends
It is unavoidable to take into consideration, in addition, that the proximity of the season of low temperatures supposes the proliferation of seasonal diseases, such as the flu. It is to be expected that the State provides for the availability of sufficient flu vaccines, in order to protect the population.
The panorama is complicated by the drop in care in public hospitals as a result of the force measures that the health teams are driving.
There are priorities that cannot be ignored. Preventing the spread of dengue is one of them.