Eliminating the Breeding Grounds of Mosquitoes is the Most Effective Defense Against Dengue Says Paraguay's Health Ministry [Symptoms, Treatment & Prevention]

Paraguay's Health Ministry said that the vaccine administered in some countries isn't the most effective way to prevent dengue.

On Monday, the ministry said that "the best vaccine against dengue" is eliminating the breeding grounds of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which carries the disease, Fox News Latino reported. They have also warned that the vaccine currently running in other nations is far from being 100 percent effective.

"If we make that small effort as citizens to eliminate breeding grounds, we'll have the best of vaccines, since not only will we prevent the disease but we'll eliminate the carrier," Sonia Arza, head of the Expanded Immunization Program, said, as quoted in the news outlet's report.

The ministry stressed out that eliminating the mosquitoes' breeding grounds should be a main concern for both authorities and citizens, Fox News Latino added. Mosquito-borne epidemic could effortlessly spread following December's rains, which flooded whole neighborhoods in Paraguay's capital, Asunción, and pushed roughly 100,000 residents to evacuate their homes.

The dengue vaccination, administered to people between ages 9 and 45, is in its trial phase and has yielded positive results in 60 percent of cases in the three countries that authorize its use, Fox News Latino further reported. Paraguay's Health Ministry, however, said that even though Brazil, Mexico, and the Philippines have authorized the vaccine to be used against dengue fever, there's still no guarantee that the medicine can purge the mosquito that transmits the disease.

The vaccine called Dengvaxia was approved for use in the three nations in December after successful clinical trials began in 2011, according to The Tico Times. The vaccine was made by French pharmaceutical company, Sanofi.

"No one denies the relevance of the vaccine, but our investment in health care should make us sure to have a powerful impact and not just give us a false sense of security," Arza added, as quoted by the news outlet.

Meanwhile, Dr. Agueda Cabello, director general of Health Watch, said that the vaccine lowers the hospitalization rate of dengue cases and more severe types of the illness, Fox News Latino reported. She added that vaccination gives better protection for patients that have already suffered from dengue, and has greater impact in areas where the virus is considered endemic or hyperendemic.

The Health Ministry's latest figures indicated that up to the second-to-last week of 2015, around 16,000 patients had tested positive for dengue and 4,288 for Chikungunya, Fox News Latino added. The Zika virus, which may cause birth defects, has also been spreading in Brazil. All of these viruses came from the Aedes aegypti mosquito.

Mosquito-borne illness is potentially fatal, has mind-dulling effects, and causes joint pain, The Tico Times listed.