MONTEVIDEO, March 25 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Uruguayan health authorities confirmed the first autochthonous case of dengue this year. It was a patient in Montevideo, whose appearance triggered a full-scale deployment of epidemiology teams to track down the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the disease’s vector.
Montevideo City Hall teams also tested neighbors of the affected person in a move to curtail spreading.
“It is the first autochthonous case we have,” explained Public Health Minister Cristina Lustemberg, who also reported the patient was recovering well at home.
She also urged the citizenry to seek medical help in case of symptoms like prolonged fever and eye pain and to take precautions such as eliminating places where the mosquito could breed, in addition to using repellent.
Surveillance will intensify, especially with Tourism (Easter) Week approaching, despite no prior autochthonous cases this year, the only two occurrences detected in people with a travel history to Argentina and Brazil.
Lustemberg also expressed her concern amid a rise in tuberculosis (TB) cases, with 52 more detections last year than in 2023. The malady was noted to particularly affect vulnerable groups like children, adolescents, and prison inmates in areas like Montevideo, Salto, and Maldonado.
On International Tuberculosis Day Monday, the minister also highlighted the existing social inequalities and overcrowding as factors driving the spread. She also mentioned early diagnosis plans jointly with Uruguay’s Anti-Tuberculosis League.
“We are concerned,” Lustemberg stressed while announcing that “concrete actions” would be taken. She also underscored the importance of early diagnosis, which would prove TB “is determined by social constraints.”
“It is a disease that is spread through airborne routes” and therefore “overcrowding conditions favor it,” she underlined.
The World Health Organization pointed out that TB causes over one million deaths annually and the toll may get worse amid funding cuts.
Global efforts to combat it have saved an estimated 79 million lives since 2000. “The enormous gains the world has made against TB over the past 20 years are now at risk, as funding cuts begin to disrupt access to prevention, detection, and treatment services for people with TB,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“But we cannot renege on the concrete commitments that world leaders made at the United Nations General Assembly just 18 months ago to accelerate work to end TB. WHO is committed to working with all donors, partners, and affected countries to mitigate the impact of funding cuts and find innovative solutions,” he added. — NNN-MERCOPRESS
