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Sao Paulo opened an emergency operations center Tuesday to deal with a surge in dengue fever cases that has hit Brazil and South America just as millions of tourists arrive for carnival celebrations.<\/p>\n
Cases of the mosquito-borne disease have also risen sharply in Argentina, where a record 10,000 cases were reported in the first three weeks of the year.<\/p>\n
Paraguay has meanwhile declared a health emergency over dengue. It has registered 36 deaths since December, including 12 children, officials there said.<\/p>\n
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s second-biggest city, after Sao Paulo, also declared a public health emergency Monday, four days ahead of the official opening of its famed carnival.<\/p>\n
Authorities announced the opening of 10 dedicated treatment centers to alleviate pressure on Rio’s overwhelmed hospitals.<\/p>\n
“It’s a good thing they opened this center. The hospitals can’t handle the situation alone,” patient Luciana Ferreira told AFP in the working-class Curicica neighborhood.<\/p>\n
The capital, Brasilia, has opened an emergency field hospital.<\/p>\n
Brazil registered 345,235 likely cases of dengue in the first five weeks of the year, nearly four times the number registered over the same period last year.<\/p>\n
Thirty-one people have died of dengue, according to the Brazilian health ministry, which is still analyzing another 234 deaths that may have been caused by the disease.<\/p>\n
Sao Paulo is testing a drone that uses larvicide to combat mosquitos in hard-to-reach areas.<\/p>\n
Brazil plans to start a public vaccination campaign against dengue this month — though a lack of doses from the vaccine’s maker, Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda, means only children ages 10 to 14 will be targeted.<\/p>\n
Brazil’s government says it is studying options to produce a dengue vaccine domestically.<\/p>\n
Dengue, which can cause hemorrhagic fever, infects an estimated 100 million to 400 million people yearly, though most cases are mild or asymptomatic, according to the World Health Organization.<\/p>\n
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