Brazil : Indian baby dies of suspected H1N1 virus infection

Machine translated article from G1 Globo :

" An Indian child than a year and three months died Sunday (6) after being hospitalized seven days in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the pediatric ward of the Regional Hospital of Maraba , in southeastern Pará Doctors suspect an infection caused by H1N1 virus has caused the death of the baby Xikrin ethnicity, who lived in the village Katete in Parauapebas , also in the southeastern state. Other cases of the virus have been identified in the same village.

The child had not been vaccinated against the H1N1 virus. "She arrived with suspected pneumonia, which could be caused by virus or bacteria. Given the suspicions we did just collecting and took prophylactic measures" tells the pediatrician Claudia Bueno. The medical team waits for the result of the examinations."

FIFA World Cup organisers warned of dengue fever risk at 2014 Brazil tournament

Via ABC News :

" A leading expert in infectious diseases is urging Brazil to act aggressively to head off a risk from dengue fever at next year's World Cup.

The risk from the dangerous mosquito-borne virus will be greatest at matches played in three northeastern cities, Fortaleza, Natal and Salvador, said Simon Hay, a fellow at Oxford University, on Thursday.

In other cities, the dengue season is likely to have peaked before the June 12 - July 13 tournament, he said.

"Unfortunately, the risk remains high during these months in the northeast," Hay said in a commentary in the prestigious scientific journal Nature.

"The Brazilian authorities should implement aggressive vector control in April and May, particularly around the northern stadiums, to decrease the number of dengue-transmitting mosquitoes."

Dengue is 573 dead in Brazil, already double in 2012

Machine translated article from Le Parisien, excerpt :

" Dengue has 573 dead in Brazil since January, nearly double the numbers of deaths throughout 2012, reported Wednesday the Ministry of Health. 

In 2012, the disease had 292 deaths, against 473 in 2011. 

L State of Minas Gerais (southeast) was the hardest hit, with 116 deaths, followed by Sao Paulo (southeast, 72 dead), Goias (center-west, 58), Ceara (Northeast, 54) and Rio de Janeiro (south-east, 48)."

Brazilian towns at risk of dengue fever

Via Xinhua :

" The number of Brazilian towns at risk of dengue fever has reached 157 this year, twice as many as the figure last year, the Brazilian Health Ministry warned Tuesday.

According to the ministry, authorities found the 157 towns at the risk of the epidemic after inspections were conducted in 1,239 towns.

The figure is likely to increase, as several state capitals have yet to present their most recent dengue statistics."

Brazil : State increases confirmed cases of the H3N2 Influenza

Machine translated article from Campo Grande News :

" Campo Grande has recorded two deaths caused by H1N1 and four others are being investigated. According to epidemiological bulletin released on Tuesday (25) by the State Department of Health, 98 cases were reported in the Capital. The numbers correspond to the period from January 1st until this Tuesday (25).

The figures released Tuesday also show that ten cases of H1N1 have been confirmed in every state. Four in Campo Grande, four in Sonora and two in Bela Vista and Três Lagoas.

The report also shows an increase in cases of influenza H3N2 viruses. Ten were confirmed in Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande in only five, four and one Sidrolândia in Marazion.

On notifications after Campo Grande, Sidrolândia appears with 23 confirmed cases of H1N1, then Three Ponds, already recorded 18 cases."

H1N1 kills pregnant woman and her baby in Brazil

Via Global Post :

" A 27-year-old pregnant woman and her baby died Tuesday after a week-long stay in the hospital with H1N1.

A 27-year-old pregnant woman died of multiple organ failure Tuesday after a week-long stay in the hospital with H1N1, reported Brazilian news site Terra. The woman had been in Maternidade-Escola Assis Chateubriand hospital in Fortaleza since March 7. Her baby died of cardio-respiratory failure before she was able to get medical help.

Before reaching Maternidade-Escola Assis Chateubriand, the woman passed through two municipal hospitals in Fortaleza, where she was initially diagnosed with dengue fever, according to Globo's G1 news site. Her family is now concerned about people who came in close contact with her, particularly her daughter, although medical personnel examined the girl and said she has not been diagnosed with H1N1.

Another pregnant woman, 21, was also admitted to the same hospital and diagnosed with H1N1 last week, reported newspaper Diário do Nordeste. She underwent an emergency C-section on Saturday and her baby is now in the neo-natal intensive care unit because of complications. The mother is also in intensive care."

Brazil : Rio faces dengue epidemic - health minister

An AFP report hosted by Google News, excerpt :

" Brazilian Health Minister Alexandre Padilla on Thursday warned that Rio de Janeiro faced a major dengue epidemic, although he said the virus strain prevalent was not fatal.

"I believe that Rio could this year face one of the worst dengue epidemics in its history, in terms of number of cases," he said in a television interview.

Padilla said the dengue virus strain prevalent in Rio was not the most serious and was not fatal.

The official Agencia Brasil said since the start of the year, 3,499 dengue cases have been recorded in Rio, compared with 2,322 last year, but none were fatal."

Brazil : Influenza B outbreak sends 62 Brazilian marines to hospital

Via Xinhua :

" The Brazilian Navy said Tuesday that Influenza B was responsible for the hospitalization of 62 Marine Corps cadets in the past few days.

The local naval hospital said seven cadets have tested positive for the virus, including some serious cases, such as 22-year-old cadet Leonardo Gama Rodrigues, who is being kept under observation in the intensive care unit.

"The cadets had acute respiratory syndrome, some with grave symptoms," Dr. Andre Delorenzi said, adding that Influenza B is spread by airborne transmission.

Among the 57 cadets admitted to the naval hospital last week, 38 have been discharged and are currently quarantined in the Admiral Milciades Portela Alves Training Center (Ciampa). The other five cadets who were admitted on Monday and Tuesday remain in the hospital.

Around 800 cadets and workers of Ciampa have got the flu shot, the Navy said."

Brazil : Twitter could be used against dengue fever

Via UPI :

" Brazil could help track and slow the spread of dengue fever by using social networking sites like Twitter to track outbreaks, health researchers say.

Tracking diseases in real time through social media has been done before, as with the worldwide 2009 swine flu outbreak, but when dengue season begins in Brazil this November it will be the first time data on the scale of individual cities have been collected in this way, NewScientist.com reported Monday.

Software created by the Brazilian National Institutes of Science and Technology that filters tweets for mention of the word "dengue" will help identify a high correlation between the time and place where people tweet they have the fever and the official statistics for where the disease appears each season, health officials said."

Brazil confirms third death from A H1N1 flu in 2011

Via People's Daily Online :

" The Health Secretariat of southern Brazil's Rio Grande do Sul state Thursday confirmed the third death from A H1N1 flu in the state this year.

So far, no deaths from A H1N1 flu were confirmed in any other states of Brazil, though some cases are currently being investigated.

According to the Secretariat, the flu victim was a 42-year-old woman from the town of Pelotas, who had not been vaccinated against the disease and had low immunity. She died on June 11.

The other victims in the state were a 48-year-old woman who died on June 6 and a 71-year-old man who died on June 9. Besides the three deaths, another three cases of A H1N1 flu were confirmed in the state, and 42 are currently being investigated.

Local authorities assured that there is no epidemic of A H1N1 flu in the state, but they took measures to keep control of the situation, such as increasing the stock of flu vaccines, from 180,000 to 280,000. Brazil's Health Ministry will also send 200,000 doses of antivirals to the state to be used in patients who show flu symptoms."

Brazil to vaccinate 30 mln people against flu

Via Xinhua :

" About 30 million people in Brazil will be vaccinated against the flu during an annual campaign that started Monday, President Dilma Rousseff said.

The campaign, which will continue until May 13, will focus on the elderly and the indigenous population, the pregnant, children aged between 6 months and 2 years, as well as health professionals.

Pregnant women and children under the age of 2 were the most affected in the epidemic of A/H1N1 influenza in 2009 and 2010, Rousseff said in her weekly radio show "Breakfast with the President."

Brazil : Rio de Janeiro reports over 10,000 dengue fever cases in 2011

Via Xinhua :

" The number of dengue fever cases in Rio de Janeiro city this year has already surpassed 10,000, local health authorities said on Friday.

According to the city's Health Secretariat, in less than three months, the number of confirmed dengue fever cases in Rio reached 10,158, exceeding the figures registered in the entire years of 2009 (2,723) and 2010 (3,120).

In Rio de Janeiro state, the number of confirmed dengue fever cases reached 20,150, and the death toll rose to 18.

This week, the first two cases of type-4 dengue fever in Rio de Janeiro state were confirmed in the city of Niteroi. The type-4 dengue fever is not more dangerous than the other types, but as the disease had not been registered in the region before, the local population has no immunity to it."

Brazil facing second largest dengue outbreak in its history

Via Vaccine News Daily :

" The Brazilian state of Amazonas has reported 15,548 cases of dengue as of last week, ranking it only behind the 19,000 cases registered during a 2001 epidemic.

While the first dengue outbreak in 1998 only had dengue type 1 and the second outbreak in 2001 had both types 1 and 2, the current outbreak has a higher risk than the others because it includes all four types of dengue, Inside Costa Rica reports.This epidemic has seen nine deaths as of March 1, all from dengue types 1 and 2.

Two of the dead were minors while the other seven came from the young and adult groups, according to Inside Costa Rica. Four other deaths are currently being investigated to determine if dengue was the cause."

Brazil : Rise in Dengue Cases

An article from Nam News Network :

" Brazil recorded 999,688 cases of dengue last year - more than triple of cases in 2009.Deaths totalled 572, more than double in 2009, according to figures released yesterday.

Preliminary statistics on the disease last year show that the southeast was the worst hit, with 473,994 cases, compared with 106,942 in 2009, followed by the south, where cases increased from 1,653 to 42,707 during the two-year period.

The statistical report of the Ministry of Health indicates that 572 people died of dengue last year compared with 226 in 2009."

Brazil reports first 3 Chikungunya cases

Via Xinhua :

" BRASILIA, Dec. 8 : Brazil Wednesday reported first three cases of Chikungunya, a viral disease spread by mosquitoes that causes fever and severe joint pain.

The infected included one man from Rio de Janeiro and another from Sao Paulo who recently traveled to Indonesia. The third was a Sao Paulo woman recently returned from a trip to India, the Health Ministry said. All of them received treatment and have recovered.

So far there is no evidence of Chikungunya transmission in the country,the ministry said in an online statement."

Deaths from dengue fever in Brazil up 90% in 2010

An article from Xinhua :

" RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov. 11 : The number of deaths from dengue fever in Brazil increased 89.7 percent from January to mid-October year on year, the country's Health Ministry announced on Thursday.

According to the ministry, 592 people died from dengue fever in Brazil this year, up from 312 in the same period in 2009. The number of dengue fever cases in the period surpassed 936,000 from January to October, a jump from the 489,819 cases a year earlier.

Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporao said that 70 percent of the dengue fever cases occurred in six states: Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais in the southeastern region, Mato Grosso do Sul and Goias in the midwestern region, Acre and Rondonia in the northern region.

Most of the deaths were caused by the type 1 dengue fever, which was common in Brazil in the 1990s and now returned with full force.

According to Giovanini Coelho, coordinator of the ministry's anti-dengue program, a high incidence of rain, hot weather and poor sanitation in the country also contributed to the rise in the dengue fever cases."

Brazil reports 15 deaths from cases of drug-resistant bacteria infection

Via Xinhua :

" BRASILIA, Oct. 18 : Brazil's Federal District reported on Monday 163 suspected cases of infection by a drug-resistant bacteria and 15 related deaths, according to the Brazilian Sanitary Surveillance (Anvisa).

The bacteria -- Klebsiella pneumoniae Carbapenemase (KPC) -- is resistant to most of the common antibiotics on the Brazilian market, the Anvisa said.

Of the 163 suspected patients in the capital, 48 remained hospitalized in 17 hospitals.
At the Base Hospital of Brasilia (HBB), there are 23 infected cases.Three patients died from the superbacteria in the hospital on Oct. 9.

"We are making an effort to control the infection. We divided the hospital into four sections -- one for people who had contact with infected patients, another for patients suspected of infection, the third for the carriers and the fourth for the normal patients," said the HBB director, Carlos Schmin."

Brazil : Mosquitoes infected with dengue viruses

Via 7th Space, a study on mosquitoes in Brazil :

" Dengue epidemics have been reported in Brazil since 1985. The scenery has worsened in the last decade because several serotypes are circulating and producing a hyper-endemic situation, with an increase of DHF/DSS cases as well as the number of fatalities.

Herein, we report dengue virus surveillance in mosquitoes using a Flavivirus genus-specic RT-Hemi-Nested-PCR assay. The mosquitoes (Culicidae, n=1700) collected in the Northeast, Southeast and South of Brazil, between 1999 and 2005, were grouped into 154 pools.Putative genomes of DENV-1, -2 and -3 were detected in 6 mosquito pools (3.8%).

One amplicon of putative DENV-1 was detected in a pool of Haemagogus leucocelaenus suggesting that this virus could be involved in a sylvatic cycle."

Brazil : Dengue has already affected more than 4000 cities

Via O Globo, a report on dengue which I used Google Translate for the English version, excerpt :

" Brasilia and Belo Horizonte : Facing a routine traps and neglect, the 60 000 officers of the battalion to fight dengue across the country slowly lose the war against Aedes aegypti. Buoyed by the uncontrolled growth and the precariousness of basic sanitation in the outskirts of large cities, the mosquito widens every year its range and raises his list of victims.

Evidence that the actions taken by federal, state and municipalities to control dengue are insufficient is revealed with the increase of localities with outbreaks. In 1995, 1752 were infested cities. Today there are 4005 municipalities with mosquito breeding."

Brazil : Prolongs vaccination against A/H1N1 flu

Via Xinhua :

" Brazil's Health Ministry announced on Friday its decision to prolong the national campaign of vaccination against the A/H1N1 flu until June 2.

The campaign, which started in early March, was due to end this Friday.

The ministry also decided to extend the vaccination to children aged two to five years old. Initially, the campaign targeted only children aged six months to two years old, adults aged 20 to 39, elders, pregnant women and people with chronic health conditions such as diabetes or heart diseases.

In order to include the children aged two to five in the campaign, the Brazilian government will need 10.8 million extra doses of the flu vaccine. The children will take the vaccine in two turns, with a gap of three weeks between the doses.

Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporao also made a balance of the campaign so far. According to him, since March over 61 million Brazilians have been vaccinated against H1N1 flu."