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The Peru Ministry of Health  prepares the extension of the emergency declaration due to the dengue outbreak, which will last for 120 days and will include 20 regions and 226 districts, to continue prevention actions , larval control, fumigation and diagnosis of dengue cases.

Image/Robert Herriman

Minister Rosa Gutiérrez Palomino supported the request today before the Council of Ministers and, once the extension of the emergency declaration is approved, it will be published by supreme decree.

The head of the Minsa stressed that prevention at home, cleaning and covering the tanks with water, discarding the useless, allowing larval control and fumigation in homes, will be essential to eradicate the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the transmitter of dengue .

“Peruvian families have to help me to face dengue. We transfer the budget, but the fundamental thing is that they allow us to enter the homes to eliminate mosquito breeding sites and fumigate. The house that is not intervened becomes an infectious focus ”, warned the minister.

Rosa Gutiérrez explained that the extension of the emergency declaration will make it possible to intensify interventions against dengue, increase the diagnostic capacity of public laboratories and implement more clinical surveillance units and fever units in the 20 affected regions.

As is done in the regions, clinical surveillance units are being implemented in hospitals in Metropolitan Lima and Callao. That is, hospital beds for patients with dengue, in the Arzobispo Loayza, Sergio Bernales, San Juan de Lurigancho, María Auxiliadora, Vitarte hospitals and the “Mi Perú” Maternal and Child Center.

Image/CDC

At another time, the Minister of Health stressed that a vaccine against dengue is not the solution to eradicate the mosquito. On the contrary, she emphasized that applying prevention measures at home does kill the mosquito.

According to the National Center for Disease Epidemiology, Prevention and Control, to date Peru has registered 69,534 cases of dengue and 72 deaths, with Piura, Loreto, Ucayali, Ica and Lambayeque being the most affected regions.

The 20 departments included in the proposal to extend the declaration of emergency are Amazonas, Áncash, Ayacucho, Cajamarca, Callao, Cusco, Huánuco, Ica, Junín, La Libertad, Lambayeque, Metropolitan Lima, Loreto, Madre de Dios, Pasco, Piura, Puno, San Martin, Tumbes and Ucayali.