Outbreak of dengue fever can become a "public calamity" in Cape Verde

Prime Minister José Maria Neves, announced on Tuesday that the government is considering whether to enact "public calamity" based on the proportion of the dengue situation in the country.

As of now, three deaths and 6709 cases of dengue is the official balance of the epidemic in the archipelago. 22 of them can be confirmed as dengue hemorrhagic fever, which is a deadly disease. Between Monday and Tuesday (Nov 2 and 3), there were 748 suspected new cases across the Islands.

Faced with the increasing numbers of the epidemic, the Prime Minister and his cabinet, has declared Friday November 6 as a national day of mandatory work suspension for all employees in order to support the fight against mosquito that transmits the deadly disease.

Also on Sunday, there will be a campaign that will involve different segments of Cape Verdean society such as private businesses, families, municipal governments, the Armed Forces, the Civil Protection, Volunteers, Law enforcement, and others.

According to Prime Minister Neves, quoted by Cape-Verdean Comercial Radio, the aim is to draw the attention of all Cape-Verdeans for the need of a collective fight against the issue of mosquito-with hopes that it will improve the current situation. .

There is a need to clean the streets and neighborhoods and eradicate conditions conducive to the retention of rainwater or other sources so we can prevent mosquitoes to spread added Commercial Radio.

The Prime Minister said that there will be a great national campaign to mobilize the media for further action to disseminate the disease and its prevention by proposing aggressive initiatives to prevent mosquitoes spread and propagation of Dengue in Cape Verde.

To date, only the island of Boa Vista is assumed to be free of Dengue's infection.

Medicines

At a time when they begin to circulate information about shortages of drugs and repellents in drugstores around the country, the Director-General of Health, Manuel Boal, said that besides enhancing the production of Paracetamol, the Ministry of Health decided to import more Dipyrone to prevent disruptions in fighting against dengue

According to Commercial Radio, the information about the need for medication to combat dengue were denied by the Director General of Health, Manuel Boal. He said that the Ministry of Health decided to importation more drugs as a precautionary measure.

Health facilities recommend the use mosquito repellent, a product that can no longer be found in Praia or Mindelo. Emprofac, entity responsible to import medical products confirmed that the stock of insect repellent sold out in two main islands due to high demand since the beginning of the Dengue epidemic.

The company announced this week the arrival of new stock of repellents from Portugal. The Armed Forces of Cape Verde are on the ground to clean the streams and eliminate breeding sites of mosquitoes that exist.