(5 Apr 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Buenos Aires, Argentina - 04 April 2024
1. A young man looking for mosquito repellent in an empty supermarket stand
2. Empty supermarket shelves where mosquito repellent spray was sold out
3. Supermarket stands with only two boxes of mosquito repellent
4. A sign posted on the door of a supermarket reading (Spanish) "No mosquito repellent."
5. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Marta Gómez, 47, shop owner:
++CONTAINS CUTAWAY OF MARTA SERVING A CUSTOMER++
"There is no stock anywhere, (clients) went around. And there are other customers who get upset because you tell them - There isn't any, there isn't any. (Clients say) - So, give me an explanation. Why don't you want to sell me? In other words, they get aggressive.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Buenos Aires, Argentina - 05 April 2024
6. People with dengue symptoms waiting to be treated in a hospital
7. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Victor Monzón, 63, unemployed:
"If there was, it's over now. It's abuse because they charge you a lot. There should be a laboratory where they manufacture and distribute to people.”
8. Various of fumigation workers from the Government of the City of Buenos Aires
STORYLINE:
With dengue fever outbreaks at their peak in Argentina, shelves of mosquito repellent have run out.
The product is sold out in virtually all Buenos Aires stores and going for exorbitant prices online, in some cases as much as ten times the retail value.
'No repellent' is a sign repeated in stores throughout the city.
"There is no stock anywhere, (clients) went around. And there are other customers who get upset," said shop owner Marta Gómez.
As public outrage mounted and the shortage became national news, the government — busy battling sky-high inflation and near-daily protests — was forced to intervene.
On Thursday, authorities lifted import restrictions on foreign-made mosquito repellents to boost supply and announced they would ramp up production at local labs.
Since February, wholesalers have hiked prices, and some Argentines have stockpiled repellent to resell when stores run out.
Now, most lotions and sprays online fetch between $20 and $40 — five or 10 times the original market price.
"It's abuse because they charge you a lot, and that can't happen here. In our country, there should be a laboratory that they manufacture and distribute to people," said Victor Monzón, waiting outside a Buenos Aires hospital to be treated.
The dengue virus has exploded across Latin America over the past muggy weeks of summer in the Southern Hemisphere.
The mosquito-borne illness has long been endemic in countries like Brazil and Colombia, but experts warn the worsening outbreak in Argentina means the Aedes aegypti mosquito has widened its range.
Dengue infections in Argentina have soared to over 180,500 this season, according to health authorities, including 129 deaths.
That's six times higher than last season's count, which was already the worst on record.
AP Video shot by Pablo Barrera
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