MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Dengue reported and confirmed in outskirts of Buenos Aires

The mosquito transmitted dengue viral epidemic has reached the outskirts of Buenos Aires according to the head of the Epidemiology Department from the province of Buenos Aires.

Mario Marsana Wilson confirmed to the local press that two new suspected cases had been detected in Quilmes to the south of Buenos Aires, which means a total of 32 cases so far and 16 confirmed in Argentina’s most populated province.

Apparently a teenager and a man of 28 arrived in Quilmes from the northern province of Chaco where authorities have admitted “they reacted slowly” to the outbreak following revelations of the existence of at least 3.000 confirmed cases of dengue.

“It’s another non autochthonous case of the disease” said Marsana Wilson, who said the patients developed the symptoms after they arrival in Buenos Aires.

Marsana Wilson added there was no evidence of the presence of the virus in Buenos Aires, insisting that none of the confirmed cases had contracted dengue in the province or the capital of Argentina. He added that all confirmed and reported cases are “under control” and that most patients are recovering at their homes.

The mayor of Quilmes said that municipal staff was on a fumigation campaign and called on all neighbours to collaborate.

Chaco in the north of Argentina together with the provinces of Salta and Catamarca, has been exposed to the mosquito which proliferates in the tropical rainy season as the larvae breed in stagnant water.

The north of Argentina borders with Bolivia and Paraguay where this summer the dengue epidemics has been particularly strong. In Bolivia at least 60.000 cases have been confirmed and in Paraguay, 4.500. There have also been a few cases of the more fulminating variant of the disease, haemorrhagic dengue which causes death.