The capital of São Paulo records 105 deaths from dengue, reported the Municipal Health Department. The total is well above the average of the previous nine years, of 5.4 deaths, and corresponds to more than a fifth (22.5%) confirmed throughout the state, which has recorded 465 deaths to date, according to the State Department of Health.
Across the state, there are now 815,396 confirmed cases, of which 220,029 are residents of the capital. Among the administrative districts of the capital with the highest number of confirmed dengue cases are Itaquera (9,740), Itaim Paulista (7,920) and Jardim Ângela (6,642). Also included in this group are São Miguel (6,245), Vila Curuçá (5,958), Lajeado (5,809), Cidade Tiradentes (5,026).
The municipality’s current level is also much higher than that reached in 2015, when 25 people died as a result of complications from the disease. Dengue is an infection transmitted by the bite of a female mosquito. Aedes aegyptiwhich is also an agent of the arboviruses zika and chikungunya.
In general, patients with dengue fever present symptoms such as fever, headache, myalgia (muscle pain), nausea (feeling sick), back pain and retro-orbital pain (pain behind the eyes). The condition may also include vomiting, arthralgia (joint pain), arthritis (inflammation of the joints), rash (reddish spots on the skin), petechiae (purplish-brown spots), leukopenia (decrease in white blood cells in the blood), loop test positive (when more than 20 red dots are identified in a certain marked area on the skin) and conjunctivitis.
Some patients may experience a progression of the condition, which worsens and includes intense abdominal pain, persistent vomiting, which may contain blood, bleeding from the gums or nose, difficulty breathing, mental confusion, fatigue, liver enlargement, decreased blood pressure and blood in the stool. In total, there are four serotypes of dengue, which means that a person can contract the disease four times, whether or not they show symptoms and whether it is mild, severe or lethal.
