As of October 2009, we will implementing a new project of comprehensive control of the mosquito that transmits dengue in the municipality of Tartagal, Salta. This new challenge is made possible thanks to the involvement of the local municipality, the Ministry of Health of the Nation, provincial authorities and the financial support of UTE Acambuco, headed by Pan American Energy.

The project's main goals are dengue prevention and control, and it will be carried out in Tartagal municipality, with a 15-month duration. It is financed by the firm Pan American Energy, through UTE Acambuco (Salta), also constituted by Repsol YPF, O&G (linked to Shell), Apco Argentina and Northwest Argentina. In September, Mundo Sano and that firm signed the agreement by which Mundo Sano is in charge of the general coordination, design, implementation and the organization of the technical team, which is made up of Mundo Sano staff and national, provincial and municipal officials.

The project proposes the design and execution of systematic inspections of dwellings in order to identify, treat and/or eliminate the detected or potential breeding sites. First, it aims at stratifying risk in Tartagal's urban area and then progressing into control actions of the vector's larval population, which has proved to significantly diminish the profusion of adult mosquitoes, the dengue transmission vectors.

The intervention model proposed intends to achieve an effective reduction in vectoral infestation indices, attempting to improve the general epidemiological situation in Tartagal, in view of the risk of permanence of autochthonous cycles of dengue transmission in Northwest Argentina. In this context, Tartagal city has a high strategic value given its geographical location and the well-known existence of 3 of the 4 dengue viral serotypes in neighbouring Bolivia.

Furthermore, a comprehensive analysis of the anthroposystem will facilitate gathering information that will in turn help identify other key elements over which prevention and vectoral control strategies must be applied.

Historical dengue presence in Tartagal
In Argentina, dengue is an emerging health issue, with high morbidity during epidemic seasons. Aedes aegypti has succeeded in spreading fast as a result of the existing favourable conditions for its development. In this scenario, Salta province accounts for a high percentage of the overall cases recorded in our country.

Tartagal municipality is located in a region that has been hit by recurrent dengue outbreaks for the last 12 years. In 1997, the first two cases coming from Bolivia were detected, after 81 years of no cases of the disease being reported in our country. The first dengue outbreak of autochthonous cases was recorded in 1998, and most of the cases reported in 10 municipalities of Salta province corresponded to Tartagal city. Since then, outbreaks of varied magnitude have been reported and in 2009, the epidemic included the appearance of hemorrhagic dengue.

Occurrence of these epidemiological outbreaks is associated with several factors that, on the whole, give rise to conditions that are highly favourable to viral circulation and transmission, particularly from January to May.

Due to the lack of vaccines, the main prevention measure is control of the vector.