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Thursday, May 29, 2014 - 1:30pm


Updated: 2 years ago.



"This year, dengue transmission has been much more significant in Sao Paulo than in other years," says Nancy Marcal Bastos de Souza, a biologist who works with the city authorities. "We spray neighborhoods where we have a confirmed case of someone contracting dengue so we know there are dengue-carrying mosquitoes there," she says.

Only two weeks shy of the World Cup soccer tournament in Brazil, which begins June 12, there's concern that international visitors could get infected and then bring the disease back to their home nations.


Dengue fever has long been a problem in Brazil. The country has more recorded cases than any other in the world some 1 million on average each year.



So why does Brazil have such a big problem with dengue?

Biologists say one of the reasons is poor water infrastructure.

"People have to put water in a space close to their homes, and there, the mosquitoes come and breed," says Celso Granato, head of infectious diseases at the Federal University of Sao Paulo.

Mosquito eggs can survive up to a year as well, so he says the key to combating dengue is persistence. That means using a combination of controls, such as spraying even when there aren't that many cases, as the infection comes in waves.

But the local governments in Brazil don't do that, says Granato. "What does the public administrator here think?" he asks. "This year we didn't have dengue so don't worry about next year."

Politicians, he adds, are usually short-sighted.


So there's been little to stop the sudden spike in Sao Paulo, Brazil's biggest city with a population of 20 million. With more than 6,000 cases so far in the city alone and almost 60,000 in the surrounding state hospitals are overrun.

Granato says once dengue arrives somewhere, it's there to stay.




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