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Chikungunya cases increase by more than 30% between 2020 and 2021

Between the beginning of 2021 and the first day of 2022, Brazil recorded a 32.7% increase in chikungunya cases compared to the same period of the previous year, according to the first epidemiological bulletin from the Ministry of Health released this month.

From January 3, 2021 to January 1 of this year, 96,288 thousand cases were recorded. The incidence rate is 45.1 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. The Northeast region has the highest number of cases of the disease, followed by the Southeast and Midwest regions.

14 deaths from the disease were confirmed by laboratory criteria and 27 remain under investigation. Six occurred in the state of São Paulo. Pernambuco and Espírito Santo recorded two deaths in one house.

Bahia, Minas Gerais and Sergipe recorded only one death each. Last year, 26 deaths were confirmed by laboratory criteria and 21 were under investigation in the country.

“We had a very rainy period in the summer so far. Excessive rain is not so favorable to the mosquito, but when it is followed by a period of very strong heat, this activates the insect’s metabolism and can have a large increase in the transmission of these diseases”, says infectologist Celso Ramos.

“The fact that we have a Covid-19 epidemic does not prevent us from having a chikungunya epidemic, which is not the case at the moment”, he points out.

Regarding dengue, Brazil had a drop in the number of cases in the same period.

According to the bulletin, there was a reduction of 42.6% compared to the year 2020. Between January 2021 and the first day of 2022, there were 544,460 thousand cases.

The incidence rate of the disease is the same as chikungunya, with 45.1 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

Up to week 52 (December 26 to January 1), 371 cases of severe dengue (DG) and 4,409 cases of dengue with alarm signs (DSA) were confirmed, when the patient has high fever and frequent vomiting.

In this period, 240 deaths from dengue were confirmed and 62 cases are being investigated.

The states that had the highest number of deaths were São Paulo, with 59 occurrences, Paraná, with 28, Goiás, with 24, Ceará, with 20, Mato Grosso do Sul and Distrito Federal, with 13 and 12 cases, respectively. In 2020, deaths from this disease reached 541.

With regard to Zika data, there were 6,483,000 probable cases up to week 50, which runs from January 3rd to December 18th until 2021. The incidence rate is 3 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

The data represents a 12% drop in the number of cases in the country compared to the previous year. Since 2020 to date, there has been no confirmation of death from Zika in Brazil.

Chikungunya, dengue and zika are transmitted by the bite of the Aedes mosquito. According to Fiocruz, the main transmitter is Aedes aegypti. Chikungunya can also be spread by Aedes albopictus, another mosquito species.

Despite being spread by the same mosquito, the symptoms of these diseases are different. In chikungunya, the most common symptoms are: high fever of rapid onset, intense pain in the joints of the feet and hands, in addition to the fingers, ankles and wrists.

Headaches and muscle aches, as well as red spots on the skin can also occur.

Dengue can be asymptomatic or lead to severe cases and death. Usually, the first manifestation of dengue is high fever of sudden onset, accompanied by headache, body and joint pain.

Prostration, weakness, pain behind the eyes, rash and itching of the skin, weight loss, nausea and vomiting are also common.

Zika, which usually has a benign course, has redness in the eyes, itching, low-grade fever, headache, mild joint pain and red spots on the skin as symptoms.

* Under supervision of Helena Vieira

Reference: CNN Brasil

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