Dengue Leaves Orphans in the State of São Paulo

04/29/2015 - 08h54

Pietra, 7, still has not managed to comprehend what has happened. Maria Eduarda, 10, refused to talk to strangers. It is up to Lucas, 16, to re-establish the family routine, now the man of the house.

In March, they lost their father, Gilson Alves, 40, a man of 6' 2" and 243lbs, to the bite of an Aedes aegypti mosquito, of 0.2 inches.

Alves was a victim of dengue fever. "In school they teach us what causes it and how to prevent it," says Lucas.

"We're stunned. A man that size and a mosquito, you know?" says the children's mother, Elaine Mendonça, who has been married to Gilson since she was 15.

In the family's home in São Carlos (144 miles from São Paulo), a mosquito repellent plug-in is left in the socket constantly, so no-one forgets where it is.

With 220,000 inhabitants, São Carlos had registered 7471 cases of dengue up to last Friday, seven times more than the 1067 cases recorded last year.

According to Alves' mother-in-law, Maria Donizete Mendonça, 58, the mosquitos breed in a ditch behind the family home, where stagnant water has been accumulating for some time.

129 miles from São Carlos, Sorocaba has seen 19 residents die from dengue so far this year, with the disease suspected in another 14 deaths. After losing her grandfather to the disease, Giovana Helena da Silva Valentim, 28, says she fears for her two-year-old daughter.

"At home we spend all day with the plug-in switched on," she says. Her grandfather, João Maria Valentim, 78, battled the disease for a week before succumbing. She feels that dirt and the neglect of public spaces in the city are at the root of the problem.

"I think they're going to wait for someone else to die before they clean things up," she says.

Translated by TOM GATEHOUSE

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	Fabio Braga/Folhapress
	Elaine Mendonça with her kids, Lucas and Pietra, in San Carlos (SP). In March, their father died because of dengue fever