Minas Gerais declares end of dengue epidemic

Minas Gerais Governor Romeu Zema this week ordered the end of the state’s dengue epidemic, bringing an end to a public health emergency declared five months earlier. 

According to this Monday’s epidemiological report posted by the Minas Gerais state health authorities, the state has confirmed more than 970,000 cases of dengue so far this year, with 764 confirmed deaths and another 732 under investigation. 

State capital Belo Horizonte had already suspended its health emergency last month, with Mayor Fuad Noman claiming the city “overcame the virus.”

At the peak of this year’s dengue crisis in March, Minas Gerais state accounted for approximately one-third of all cases in the country. The rate of 8,059 cases per 100,000 inhabitants was only surpassed by the much smaller Federal District.

Within the first four months of 2024, 4.3 million Brazilians were diagnosed with dengue; this was the worst epidemic since 2015, a year with 1,688,688 reported cases. 

This year, Brazil also set a new record of dengue-related deaths; 2,197 are confirmed and 2,276 others are still under investigation. These numbers are the highest since 2000. 

The emergency in Minas Gerais also encompassed other mosquito-borne diseases, namely chikungunya and zika. The state has confirmed 109,953 cases of chikungunya so far, with 83 deaths. A mere 38 zika cases have been confirmed since the beginning of the year.

A total of nine Brazilian states declared health emergencies amid the dengue epidemic. Besides Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro has also declared an end to the emergency.

“There is no doubt that the dengue epidemic in Brazil is calming down, especially because we are now entering the driest months of the year,” says Cláudio Maierovitch, vice-president of Brazilian public health association Abrasco, speaking to The Brazilian Report.

“This should serve as a lesson, especially to state and municipal authorities, that we have an urgent need to prepare for the next epidemic. The time to act is now, in July and August, to prevent the epidemic from coming back in the rainy months,” he adds.

While dengue’s mortality rate is small, the impact of the disease epidemic on the economy could reach BRL 4.4 billion (USD 889 million) in productivity losses in 2024, according to mid-April estimates by the Federation of Industries of Minas Gerais (Fiemg) — the actual impact could end up being much higher.

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