Technology Allies with Interior São Paulo Cities in Dengue Fight
According to data from the Ministry of Health, in January 2024 alone, Brazil recorded more than 217 thousand cases of dengue, triple the number of cases in 2023 in the same period. In the State of São Paulo alone, there are already more than 30 thousand confirmed cases. Even in the face of this critical situation, two cities in the Ribeirão Preto region stand out with proactive actions to combat the disease: Santa Rosa de Viterbo and Serrana. While Santa Rosa de Viterbo uses traps and laboratory analysis, Serrana uses georeferencing.
Thus, contrary to the rest of the country, which began the year with an explosion in dengue cases, the city of Santa Rosa de Viterbo, in the first days of January, had 15 cases of the disease reported and only one confirmation. The results are also positive in Serrana: while the beginning of 2023 recorded 24 confirmed cases of dengue, in 2024, in the same period, the numbers in that municipality fell by half.
Technology is not enough
Despite advances in controlling dengue fever in these cities, through the use of technology, the professor at the Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto (FMRP) at USP, Benedito Lopes da Fonseca, states that the population needs to do their part. “It is important that we, as a population, do our part and look for the presence of these disease breeding sites in our homes.”
The professor says that technology is always welcome, but should not be used as a public health strategy. “It is important to carry out virological surveillance in mosquitoes, but it is also necessary to carry out surveillance of the disease in humans, as this is what will enable health professionals to adequately control this disease”.
Integrated approach
In Santa Rosa de Viterbo, 70 km from Ribeirão Preto, an integrated approach between conventional and digital methods was adopted with the aim of reducing dengue cases in the city. In its various neighborhoods, traps designed to attract Aedes aegypti were installed using a non-toxic compound added to the water, which results in the efficient capture of these mosquitoes.
Subsequently, the insects are sent to specialized laboratories and subjected to DNA and RNA analysis, aiming to identify possible infections by the four known serotypes of the disease. This approach seeks to control the proliferation of the vector and also provide a more accurate diagnosis of the presence of pathogenic agents.
According to André Nader, director of the Health Department of Santa Rosa de Viterbo, since the installation of 96 traps spread across the city and the use of DNA and RNA analysis, the number of cases has been falling. “In 2022 we had 399 confirmed cases of dengue, in 2023 this number fell to 148, a drop of more than 60%.” According to the city’s Municipal Health Department, all 148 cases registered in 2023 were in the first half of that year.
In addition to the drop in the number of cases of the disease, Nader explains that this new tactic adopted to combat dengue helped to improve the city’s financial health. “In 2022 we had a social cost of R$704 thousand in relation to dengue patients; After the installation of the traps, in April 2023, this cost fell to R$261 thousand.” For this reason and the drop in the number of cases, Nader states that the initiative will be maintained and will complement the other actions to combat dengue that the city has.
GPS and tablets as allies
In the city of Serrana, 25 km from Ribeirão Preto, traps and laboratory tests give way to tablets and a georeferencing system in the fight against dengue. The measure aims to facilitate the location and mapping of dengue breeding sites in the city.
Guilherme Montanari, the city’s health secretary, explains that georeferencing can present statistical data in real time. “Georeferencing brings real-time field statistical data to the Department of Health and public authorities. This data was previously only tabulated once a week and physically, on paper.”
With this, the city of Serrana is able to map in real time the neighborhoods and houses in the city that have mosquito breeding sites, facilitating the work of the municipality’s Health Department and allowing an approach that better directs the efforts and attention of public authorities.
With this data, the City Council created a system of fines, which vary between one thousand and R$100 thousand and which can increase, depending on the position of the breeding site and its risk to public health, that is, if there is a dengue mosquito breeding site. near a school or hospital, the fine may be higher.