Cities Headhunting Doctors and Improvising Hospitals in Fight Against Dengue Epidemic

02/04/2016 - 09h10

With dengue on the increase and growing fears around the zika virus, municipal governments in Brazil are headhunting doctors and setting up temporary hospitals to treat infected patients. Both diseases are transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito.

	Tarso Sarraf/Folhapress
	Cities affected by the epidemic have been struggling to find doctors even to fill the usual shifts.

Such measures have been adopted in cities across São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso do Sul and Paraná, in an attempt to ease the strain being placed on the public health system by patients suffering from the symptoms of dengue.

Cities affected by the epidemic, or in an official state of emergency, have been struggling to find doctors even to fill the usual shifts. As a result, municipal governments are offering doctors as much as R$1200 a day (US $308) for temporary work.

Ribeirão Preto, in the state of São Paulo, registered 927 dengue cases in the first 15 days of the year alone. The city declared a state of emergency and expects to spend R$15.8 million (US $4.1 million) to contain the disease.

Temporary hospitals have been set up in Paranaguá, in Paraná, and Campo Grande, in Mato Grosso do Sul. In Paranaguá, the epidemic is so serious that traditional carnival celebrations have had to be postponed until July, to coincide with the city's anniversary.

In Campo Grande, the government has been forced to hire 120 doctors to reinforce capacity after a strike in 2014 and 2015. For a twelve-hour day, they are paid R$1200. The city's temporary hospital has been operational since December.

Juiz de Fora, in Minas Gerais, is also in a state of emergency, having registered 796 cases of Aedes aegypti related diseases this year. It is due to set up two hydration centers and it is in the process of taking on more doctors.

In a speech on Wednesday, President Rousseff urged society to unite against the mosquito and said that the fight against zika was "an urgent struggle". The virus is considered by doctors to be the cause of the upsurge in microcephaly in Brazil. 404 cases have been confirmed, with 3670 under analysis.

Translated by TOM GATEHOUSE
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