MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mexican donation of mosquito repellent arrives in Argentina

The sanitary fluid was manufactured by SC Johnson's Mexican branch

A total of 22,320 bottles of mosquito repellent donated by Mexico arrived Monday in Argentina where the product has become increasingly scarce amid a soaring number of dengue fever cases, it was reported in Buenos Aires.

The packages containing the sanitary fluid manufactured by SC Johnson's Mexican branch were received at the Ezeiza International Airport to be distributed among the country's most vulnerable, according to local media citing government sources.
Last week, the Libertarian administration of President Javier Milei lifted all restrictions on the import of repellents, effective Monday, in a move to drive black-market-like mark-ups by retailers in possession of just a few units.
Argentine Health Ministry's latest Epidemiological Bulletin showed 180,529 reported cases this year and 232,996 so far in the 2023/2024 season (from July/August 2023, until the end of March 2024). The study also found that 90% of the infections were autochthonous, 7% were still under investigation, and only 3% of them were imported, meaning the patient had a recent travel history.
”The cumulative incidence so far for the total country is 495 cases per hundred thousand inhabitants. In the same period, 512 cases were classified as severe dengue (0.2%) and 161 cases died (lethality 0.069%15),“ the Bulletin also stated.
”As for the temporal behavior, the persistence of cases throughout the period analyzed and the seasonal increase is highlighted from week 40 -beginning of October- with an acceleration from week 50 -mid-December- and an even greater acceleration from week 6 -beginning of February 2024- and until week 11 -mid-March- in which the peak is registered so far with 33,866 cases reported,“ it went on.
Dengue surveillance is carried out seasonally, from epidemiological week 31 of one year to week 30 of the following year, coinciding with the peak of virus activity, which usually occurs during the summer. Although there are still several weeks to go before the end of this year's measurement, the record number of cases recorded in the previous season, which was just over 130,000, has already been surpassed.
According to the Health Ministry, ”there are currently 19 jurisdictions in the 5 regions of the country with an autochthonous viral circulation ... (all of them in the Northwest, Northeast, Cuyo, and Central regions, and in the province of La Pampa in the Southern region)“.
Last week, Federal Health Minister Mario Russo insisted that it was up to each province to contain the circulation of the virus. ”We can exercise the steering role and the strategic planning of public health policies by setting the course, by issuing practical guidelines“, said Russo, and added: ”The governors and the provincial health ministers must understand that it is their responsibility to carry out the operational phase of these public health policies.”