Cape Verde’s capital launches massive new cleanup campaign to prevent dengue

The city of Praia is carrying out another major cleanup campaign on Saturday, focusing on five “priority zones” in the Cape Verdean capital to prevent dengue fever, although the city has already recorded 12 cases of the disease, authorities announced.

The clean-up campaign is being led by the Municipal Health Commission, the watchdog body for the National Health Service, and chaired by health official Praya, which aims to “eliminate outbreaks of mosquitoes” that transmit dengue fever.

“The entire population is called upon to take part in this collective effort,” the same source requested in a note sent to the press today, indicating that the meeting is scheduled for 08:00 local time (one hour later in Lisbon), in Estádio da Varzea Square , the lower part of Praia and one of the “five priority zones” such as Plateau, Fazenda, Sucupira and Achadinha.

The cleaning campaign will involve the Armed Forces, the Ministry of Health, the National Institute of Public Health, the National Police, the Scouts, Civil Defense, the Red Cross, the Municipal Council Volunteer Corps, community associations, volunteers and other partners.

“This initiative aims not only to clean up, but also to raise public awareness of the importance of keeping the environment free of possible mosquito breeding grounds,” said the health commission, which also wants the campaign to be carried out in all areas of the Cape Town capital. -verdiana.

In this sense, he also considered it “fundamental” for every citizen to contribute to prevention at home by eliminating containers in which stagnant water can accumulate, such as old tires, plant pots, empty bottles and other objects that can become breeding grounds for mosquitoes .

On Wednesday, Praia health spokeswoman Oulardina Furtado said there were 12 cases of dengue fever in the municipality.

This is another major action to clean up the city of Praia after what happened on November 6, 2009, also due to the dengue epidemic throughout the country, with more than 21 thousand cases and six deaths, all on the island from Santiago.

The following year, the date was established as National Defense Day, which began to be celebrated every year to commemorate the participation of the Armed Forces, other security agencies and non-governmental organizations in the fight against the disease.

14 years ago, one of the people who contracted dengue fever was the then Prime Minister of Cape Verde, José Maria Neves, the current President of the Republic of the country.

Cape Verde is currently undergoing the process of international certification by the World Health Organization (WHO) to eliminate malaria (or malaria) as the country enters its fourth year without a single case of local transmission.