Brazil’s efforts to reduce the incidence of diseases transmitted by the Aedes aegypt mosquito have achieved positive results. More recent data released by the Ministry of Health reveals that the number of cases of zika and chikungunya decreased between 2017 and 2018, while dengue cases remained stable.
As of November of 2018, there had been 7,544 reports of zika throughout the country, a 54% decrease over the same period in
2017 (16,616). As for chikungunya, the number of reported cases went down to 82,382, a 55% reduction in relation to the previous year (183,281). Among the three major diseases caused by the mosquito, only dengue saw a slight increase, from 226,675 in 2017 to 228,042 cases reported by the beginning of last month.
According to the Ministry of Health, preventive actions and increased funding to combat the Aedes have been instrumental to reduce the number of cases reported of diseases.