Ovitrap surveillance as dengue epidemic predictor in Belo Horizonte City, Brazil

We used ovitraps, set out every two weeks to monitor for Aedes spp. in Belo Horizonte City, Brazil, 2002-2013. The average proportion of ovitraps with mosquitoes ? the ovitraps index (OIP) presented fluctuations in these years. The average egg number of Aedes sp. (MNE) revealed that it is a more sensitive index for detecting the presence of Aedes spp. than the Breteau index. They also showed that Ae aegypti was a dominant species during the period of study. The analysis of monthly cases of Dengue fever (DF) and Dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) revealed that they were correlated with the number of adult female Aedes spp. collected through the years with the correlation coefficient of 0.54 in 2002-2013. Our survey also indicated that climate data regading temperature and precipitation are directly related to the increase of mosquitoes ovules in ovitraps. Thus, under circumstances where the Breteau index is low, the ovitrap method should be applied as a good and opportune surveillance tool to evaluate the risk of human dengue infection, and the need to scale up for mosquito vector control.