Dengue in a Municipality with High Human Development Index. SP, Brazil

Aim: Dengue is an important public health problem in the world, typical of tropical regions and has become an urban disease. The incidence of dengue was studied, as the epidemiological and clinical aspects of the patients in an area of SP State in 2015. Design: It was a cross-sectional study. Subjects: The digital data file of the Special Health Service of Araraquara-SESA of São Paulo University-USP was used, as also was the population data of The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics-IBGE. The demographic and clinical characteristics of the patients were obtained for the year 2015. The incidence was calculated, and the findings are presented in tables and graphs.

Results: In 2015, there were 8,296 confirmed cases of dengue, with an incidence of 3,660 per 100,000 inhabitants, 99.5% being autochthonous. The majority were female (53.9%), 11.5% of the cases were of less than 14 years of age and 16.1% were elderly. The majority of the patients were white (54.8%), with 1st or 2nd -grade schooling. Fever, headache, retro-orbital pain, and myalgia were the prevalent signs, which appeared in isolation or in association and Den1 was the circulating serotype. There were 9 deaths, the fatality rate being 108 per 100,000.

Conclusion: The demographic and epidemiological pattern of dengue in the city accompanied those of the rest of the country. Despite having a high Human Development Index and almost universal coverage of basic sanitation, the city faced an epidemic with high incidence in 2015.