Africa-Press – Cape verde. The Ministry of Health, through the president of the National Institute of Public Health (INSP), announced on Friday that they hope to count on community collaboration to eliminate dengue fever, excluding mosquito breeding sites. Maria da Luz Lima was speaking to the press after leaving the Coordination and Assessment Meeting of the Epidemiological Situation of Dengue Fever in Cape Verde, held this morning in the presence of two experts from Brazil and Cameroon. The president of INSP said that the secret lies in community involvement, in the sense of working together to avoid the use of mosquito breeding sites, namely drums, tires, tanks and also flowerpots. “It is a challenge that needs to be faced by families and communities, because mosquitoes are in our homes, and we are the ones who live in our homes. Therefore, the plan is based, above all, on strengthening the fight against vectors and risk communication, and on accountability,” said the official. According to Maria da Luz Lima, the meeting with international experts aims to exchange information, strengthen technical and operational capacity and show people what the larvae look like, where they are and, above all, how they can treat the breeding grounds.
“Because it is not enough to just throw the water away and put it back in, you have to eliminate the breeding grounds, that is, throw the water away and wash all the walls very well, because the female eggs become embedded in the walls of the vases. This is the information we need to pass on more and more”, explained Maria da Luz Lima.
The official stressed that the focus will be on eliminating mosquito larvae and promised, in the near future, to intensify contact with people, in order to understand that dengue only exists because the larvae exist.
She said that Cape Verde reported this epidemic in November 2023, but that the country also dealt with the disease in 2009, 2010 and 2017.
According to this official, all the islands already have diagnosed cases of the disease, despite having presented low levels, but, after the first rains, there began to be a significant increase in cases.
At the moment, the country has accumulated around 16 thousand confirmed cases and has already reported, so far, eight deaths.
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