With Jocotepec now ranking as Jalisco’s number one dengue fever hot spot, the state’s Department of Health (SSJ) is targeting Lake Chapala shoreline municipalities for an all-out public awareness and disease prevention campaign.
As of this week, the SSJ had registered 701 confirmed cases of dengue infection throughout the state, plus another 4,050 probable cases, since the start of 2020. Jocotepec currently tops the list of infected localities with 75 proven cases, followed closely by Tlaquepaque with 70. Poncitlán, with 31 cases, is the only other lakeshore community where an outbreak of the disease has been detected to date.
SSJ brigades are tackling Jocotepec head-on with mass fumigations of houses, vacant lots, marketplaces, government buildings, public squares, churches and businesses. Inspections of homes where dengue patients reside may include stripping walls to spray with a long-lasting insecticide to eliminate carrier mosquitoes and larvae.
The health agency and municipal authorities are collaborating on strategies to contain the proliferation of dengue in Chapala, Poncitlán, Jamay, Ocotlán, Tizapan and Tuxcueca. Door-to-door junk removal programs help householders rid their abodes of containers that may hold standing water as a medium for mosquito reproduction. Disease prevention measures are promoted through public service announcements broadcast on mobile loudspeakers and posted on social media.