The city of Campinas, in the interior of São Paulo, confirmed this Wednesday (20), another death from spotted fever, the seventh in 2023. Last year, the municipality confirmed 11 cases and seven deaths.
The most recent victim is a 40-year-old man who was on the banks of the Capivari River and Córrego São Vicente, in the Jardim Nossa Senhora de Lourdes region, south of Campinas.
According to the Campinas Secretary of Health, the victim had the first symptoms on August 28th and died on September 2nd.
In June, Campinas had an outbreak of the disease at Fazenda Santa Margarida, an event space that hosted a show by singer Seu Jorge with an audience of 8,000 to 10,000 people.
The city hall reported that it had adopted more measures to combat the disease. One of them was the sanction of law 16,418, which obliges establishments, producers, promoters and organizers of events held in places subject to the presence of the star tick to inform about the risk of spotted fever.
What is spotted fever?
Rocky Mountain spotted fever is transmitted by an infected tick of the genus Amblyomma sp., popularly known as the star tick, which can stay on capybaras and other mammals.
The disease can take up to two weeks to manifest after initial contact and, according to the Ministry of Health, the main symptoms of the disease are fever, severe headache, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain, constant muscle pain, swelling and redness in the palms of the hands and soles of the feet, gangrene in the fingers and ears, and paralysis of the limbs, which starts in the legs and goes up to the lungs, causing respiratory arrest.
If the person passes through areas of vegetation, bush or pastures, especially close to watercourses, where there are horses and capybaras, they should be alert, for around 15 days, to the symptoms of the disease.
When presenting one of these signs, the person should immediately seek the health service and report that they have had contact with the tick and/or been to risk areas, as the symptoms can be confused with other acute febrile illnesses, such as Covid-19 and dengue. .
There is no vaccine against the disease and it is not possible to completely eliminate the tick from vegetation areas. Spotted fever has a cure, but treatment needs to be started early with appropriate antibiotics.
*Supervision by Marcos Rosendo
Source: CNN Brasil
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