Fortaleza completes 10 years without a dengue peak | cities

In the past ten years, Fortaleza has not recorded any epidemics related to the disease dengue fever. This came during the closing ceremony of the technical course for agents of community health and endemic disease control yesterday morning. According to the most recent Ortinovirus Epidemiological Bulletin, released in early August, Fortaleza has registered 3683 cases of dengue fever and one death in 2023

Dengue has been endemic in the city of Fortaleza since 1986. Classification occurs when the disease recurs in the same area, without necessarily having significant increases in the number of cases.

In these 38 years, 364,087 cases and 298 deaths have been confirmed. The total records in the years of the epidemic 1994, 2008, 2011 and 2012 accounted for 36.6% of the total (133,429 cases out of 364,087 cases).

According to the municipal administration, the indicator is the result of several measures, such as the zoning and stratification of areas at epidemiological risk in Fortaleza, that allow the mapping and monitoring of areas throughout the capital.

“This achievement is due to the work of men and women, community health and endemic factors. Fortaleza is the third capital city with the highest level of community health agent involvement. We have one million homes and businesses visited annually,” noted Fortaleza Mayor Jose Sarto (PDT).

Also on Tuesday morning, a graduation ceremony for 2,201 community health and endemic disease agents took place in Ginacio Paolo Sarasate, in the Dionisio Torres neighborhood.

According to the Fortaleza City Council, the trainees were already municipal government employees. However, they worked without specific training in the area, only through training courses.

In total, DC has 2,298 Community Health Agents (ACS) and 1,404 Agents for Endemic Disease Control (ACE). Of these, 1,391 CHAs and 810 ACEs graduated from the Technical level.

“The great importance of the course lies in the combination of practice, which these agents enjoy so much, with theory. “This amount, in fact, will give a significant improvement in primary care in Fortaleza,” notes the Minister of Health, Galino Taumaturgo.

Francisco Renato Silva de Souza, 36, was one of the community health agents to complete the training. “I always missed this kind of training. Before that we were very ‘loose’. “I think that gaining this knowledge based on scientific concepts will make a big difference in our work,” says CHA, who works in the 23rd Joao District, where he also lives.

The technical course in the agent of community health and the technician in health surveillance with a focus on endemic disease control lasted for ten months. The staff training is the result of a national action carried out in partnership with the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), the Ministry of Health (MS) and the National Council of Municipal Health Secretariats (Consems).

Dengue cases and deaths in Fortaleza during the past five years:

2019 – 3930 cases and 4 deaths
2020 – 8013 cases and 5 deaths
2021 – 14,379 cases and 5 deaths
2022 – 17,063 cases and 5 deaths
2023 – 3,683 cases and one death

source: SMS Fortaleza/COVIS/Epidemiological Surveillance Cell/Sinan. Updated July 31, 2023.