Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's two most populous cities, have announced measures to deal with the explosion in cases of dengue fever in the run-up to Carnival, which attracts millions of tourists from all over the world.
Brazil recorded 345,235 probable cases of dengue fever in the first five weeks of the year, almost four times as many as in the same period in 2023 (93,298), according to the latest figures from the Ministry of Health.
Health measures
The Ministry has also reported 31 confirmed deaths, while 234 others that could have been caused by this disease are still being analysed.
On Tuesday 6 February, the local authorities in Sao Paulo inaugurated an Emergency Operations Centre to monitor the spread of the disease in Latin America's largest megalopolis and the more than 600 other cities in the state of Sao Paulo.
A drone that sprays larvicide in hard-to-reach places has been tested to neutralise the mosquitoes that transmit this disease, which has symptoms similar to malaria.
The city of Rio de Janeiro declared a state of public health emergency on Monday.
In this mecca of Brazilian carnival, which officially kicks off on Friday, the authorities have announced the opening of ten treatment centres to relieve hospital overcrowding.
"It's a good thing they opened this centre, because hospitals alone can't cope with this situation", Luciana Ferreira, a cleaner and patient at one of these care centres in Curicica, a working-class district in the west of Rio, told AFP.
Field hospital
Other hard-hit cities have taken steps to combat dengue fever, such as the capital Brasilia, where a field hospital receives patients 24 hours a day.
"We give them basic care, hydrate them and then either discharge them or send them to a larger care centre," explains Mauricio Braga, deputy director of the air force health services.
A fortnight ago, the government announced that a free vaccination campaign targeting 3.2 million people would take place in February.
But the date for the start of immunisation with the Qdenga vaccine, produced by the Japanese laboratory Takeda, has still not been announced.
The laboratory's "limited" production capacity meant that mass vaccination was not possible, so the authorities decided to target the 10-14 age group, which accounts for the highest number of hospital admissions.
The government recently announced that it was studying the possibility of increasing the number of doses available by producing vaccines in Brazil, a country with a population of 203 million.
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