Seniors Account for 9 out of 10 Dengue Deaths in the State of São Paulo

05/05/2015 - 08h39

Nine out of 10 deaths from dengue this year in the state of São Paulo were people 60 years old or older, with 75% having a pre-existing illness.

Folha tracked the numbers with information from 130 of the 169 deaths registered, which beat the 2010 record of 141 deaths, according to data provided by the Ministry of Health on Monday (4).

Though they represent almost 12% of the population of São Paulo, the elderly make up 87% of deaths by dengue.

Infectologist Esper Kallas, from the Faculty of Medicine at USP, says that some factors are decisive when it comes to death caused by dengue. Seniors are the main victims because they are more susceptible to these aggravators.

"The chance of a healthy adult who has received the care needed promptly dying of dengue is very small. The illness will be more lethal in a 78-year-old man who has asthma or a malnourished newborn," says Kallas.

Even with a record number of deaths in São Paulo, it is considered "relatively small" when compared to other disease epidemics, like Ebola or measles.

Nationwide, 229 people have already died of dengue (74% in São Paulo) this year, and 746,000 cases of the disease were reported, up 234% when looking at the same period of time in 2014.

Translated by JILL LANGLOIS

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	Paulo Whitaker/Reuters
	Brazil already has more than 460,000 cases of people with dengue in 2015, according to the City Department of Health