Alessandro Cesar de Souza, 34, an aquaculture engineering student at UFSC (Federal University of Santa Catarina), died of dengue fever on May 16. The young man joined 59 other victims of the disease in Santa Catarina in 2023 alone.

The young man died of dengue fever on the 16th in Florianopolis. Photo: Personal Archive/Disclosure/ND

Rosangela Nascimento, Alessandro’s aunt, said that the young man loved Florianopolis and was happy to live in the city. Born in Conchal, in the interior of São Paulo, the student was known to his family as a dreamer in love with his profession.

“He was passionate about his profession, passionate about life. It’s even hard to say. Alessandro grew up in a small town in the interior of Sao Paulo and always had big dreams,” his aunt recalls with tears in her eyes.

Alessandro’s mother, Ioniche Marquez, 55, says her son dreamed of living abroad.

“I have never had a complaint from my son since preschool age. He loved his family and friends and lived a busy life,” he says.

Mother urges people to realize the importance of fighting dengue because the disease is “very serious”.

“Unfortunately, I was far away from him, there was nothing I could do. I always took care of him when he lived with me, ”finishes the mother.

The student died at Celso Ramos Hospital in the center of Florianopolis. The body was buried in the family town, in the interior of São Paulo.

The UFSC even issued a note of regret for the student’s death. In it, the university states that the university community is in solidarity with Alessandro’s family and friends in mourning.

SC reaches 60 dengue deaths and 57,369 cases

Alessandro gathered friends. One of them, Rafael Marquez, wants his friend’s story to inform people about the fight against dengue.

There are already 57,369 confirmed cases in the state. According to Dive/SC (Santa Catarina Epidemiological Surveillance Authority), another 57,027 cases remain suspicious in the notification system.

Of the confirmed cases, 46,140 are autochthonous (intrastate transmission) and are distributed in 125 municipalities of Santa Catarina, with 33 municipalities reaching epidemic levels.

The epidemic is characterized by the ratio of the number of confirmed cases and the population. WHO (World Health Organization) defines the level of epidemic transmission when the incidence rate exceeds 300 cases of dengue fever per 100,000 inhabitants.

Florianópolis has 8,110 confirmed cases. Of these, 10 people have already died, the last of which was Alessandro.

There are still 40 confirmed cases of chikungunya in Santa Catarina. The disease is also transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes. Egyptian.

The state has already reported 44,527 mosquito outbreaks.

The darker the tone in the image, the more dengue mosquito outbreaks in the region – Photo: Reproduction / Dive / ND

dengue serotypes

DENV1 and DENV2 serotypes have been identified for circulating disease serotypes in the state, according to Dive. DENV1 is the predominant serotype.

FioCruz (Oswaldo Cruz Foundation) explains that there are four types of dengue virus: Den-1, Den-2, Den-3 and Den-4. They belong to the Flaviridae family and are RNA viruses. They belong to the same family as the virus that causes yellow fever, and both dengue and yellow fever are transmitted by the same mosquito, Aedes. Egyptian.