:: What Dengue is ::

Dengue has been becoming endemic in the country since middles of the last decade, causing repeated epidemics in many cities, noting, in addition, the occurrence of the feared hemorrhagic form.

Nowadays, Dengue is the most important arbovirosis (virosis which is transmitted by the arthropods) which affects the human being and constitutes a serious problem of public health worldwide, specially in the majority of tropical countries, where the conditions of the environment favor the development and proliferation of Aedes aegypti – the main transmitter. It is also the transmitter of the Urban Yellow Fever.

Aedes aegypti was eradicated several times in Brazil . After its reintroduction, in 1976, in the city of Salvador/BA , it was detected, immediately, at the following month, in Rio de Janeiro . As a consequence of that, it became settled in the Brazilian territory, definitely.

The disease transmition occurs when the infected female mosquito hash, in the following cycle: man – Aedes aegypti – man.

The insect pricks during the day, and it is more adapted to the urban ambient. In its larval stage, it lives in a clear and dead water for domestic using, or in every place where an accumulated and clear water exists.

There is no transmition by direct contacting with a patient or with his/her mates, nor through food or water's fountain.

The transmition's period begins, inside man, one day before the appearance of fever, and it extends itself to the sixth day of the disease – period in which the virus is present in the blood.

After feeding itself with infected blood, the mosquito becomes able to transmit the virus, after the period from 8 to 12 days of incubation. Once infected, the mosquito remains in such a manner until the end of its life (from 5 to 7 weeks)

All groups of people, free of sex and age, are affected in a same way, excepting that special situations in which a determined group exposes more itself to the vector (mosquito).

Inside suckling people and little children, the usual Dengue shows itself, in a general way, as an undistinguished fevered disease; inside students, this sickness shows up with light symptoms. In an opposite way, adults show symptoms more stressed.