Cleaning effort at SRS Montes Claros reinforced the population’s mobilization against Aedes aegypti

In an initiative of the State Department of Health of Minas Gerais (SES-MG), the Mutirão “Minas Unida no Combate ao Aedes”, held on Saturday, 23/3, involved 27 municipalities that are part of the area of ​​activity of the Regional Health Superintendency (SRS). )from Montes Claros. The objective was to reinforce the mobilization of the population to eliminate outbreaks of the mosquito that transmits dengue, chikungunya, zika and yellow fever.

In Montes Claros, the largest city in the North of Minas Gerais, with a population of over 400 thousand inhabitants, the joint effort, coordinated by the Zoonoses Control Center (CCZ), involved dozens of professionals and trucks in collecting unusable materials in 22 neighborhoods, in addition to the Nova Esperança district.

The other municipalities that actively participated in mobilizing the population, aiming to reduce the incidence rates of diseases transmitted by Aedes aegypti were: Juramento; Mato Verde; Salinas, Riacho dos Machados; Taiobeiras; Claro dos Poções; Janaúba; Saint John of Paradise; Mirabela; Santa Cruz de Salinas; Matias Cardoso; Engineer Navarro; Doorman; Rio Pardo de Minas; Jequitaí; Cristália; New Porteirinha; Itacambira; Nest; Josenópolis; Indaiabira; Novorizonte; Mogol grain; Curral de Dentro; Espinosa and Jaíba.

The technical reference for mobilization at the Montes Claros SRS, Lillian Tararan, highlighted that both in the first joint effort, held on February 24th, and in this second initiative carried out last weekend, there was good participation from the municipalities. “In the first joint effort, 35 localities participated and, in this one, 27. The mobilization of the population is of fundamental importance to reduce the number of people affected by arboviruses, as well as the notifications of deaths”, said Lilian Tararan.

The regional health superintendent of Montes Claros, Dhyeime Thauanne Pereira Marques, who accompanied the joint effort in Janaúba, also assesses that “the involvement of managers in carrying out the joint efforts was important in order to reinforce the population’s awareness of the importance of elimination of Aedes aegypti outbreaks, which in more than 80% of cases are inside homes. Without the involvement of the population, the work of public health services alone will not be enough to contain the spread of the dengue, chikungunuya and zika epidemics”, notes the superintendent.

Scenario
Agna Soares da Silva Menezes, coordinator of Health Surveillance and the Strategic Information Center for Health Surveillance (Cieves) at the Regional Health Superintendence of Montes Claros, notes that the large number of reported and confirmed cases of arboviruses registered this year in Minas Gerais Gerais raises many concerns not only for the epidemiological and health surveillance services of the state and municipalities, as well as for the services that meet the population’s health demands.

“This is because health units are overloaded with caring for people who have contracted any of the diseases transmitted by mosquitoes. Furthermore, after the rainy season, combined with days when temperatures are higher, conditions become conducive to creating an environment favorable to the proliferation of Aedes aegypti and, consequently, the risk of disease transmission increases”, warns Agna Menezes. The coordinator also points out that, for this reason, mobilizing the population to eliminate mosquito outbreaks is of fundamental importance.

By Pedro Ricardo