SAN JUAN – Dengue fever is sweeping throughout the Caribbean and the Americas, with a document 12.6 million suspected instances of the mosquito-transmitted virus reported this yr, almost triple the quantity from final yr, well being officers mentioned Tuesday.
Cases of dengue have been surging globally as hotter climate introduced on by climate change permits mosquitoes to broaden their attain.
The Pan American Well being Group —the regional workplace of the World Well being Group within the Americas — mentioned deaths from dengue are additionally rising.
Greater than 7,700 deaths have been reported within the Caribbean and the Americas to date in 2024, a greater than 200% improve, in comparison with 2,467 deaths in 2023, based on the group.
The variety of instances within the area, which incorporates the USA, is the best reported since document retaining started in 1980, PAHO director Jarbas Barbosa mentioned at a information convention.
“That is linked on to climatic occasions,” he mentioned, referencing hotter temperatures, droughts and flooding. A quick inhabitants development, unplanned urbanization and poor sanitation have contributed to the rise in dengue.
The virus has surged worldwide since final yr and unfold to areas beforehand freed from dengue, based on PAHO.
Brazil is reporting the highest number of dengue cases with greater than 10 million, adopted by Argentina, with more than 580,000, and Mexico with greater than half one million.
Within the Caribbean, Guyana is leading with more than 41,000 cases, adopted by French Guiana, the Dominican Republic and Martinique.
In the meantime, native dengue transmission has been reported in California, Florida and Texas this yr, based on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There are 4 kinds of dengue virus, merely referred to as 1, 2, 3 and 4. Having one sort of virus would not present immunity from others.
For the primary time in a decade, dengue serotype 3 has predominated in Mexico, Central America and components of the Caribbean within the second half of the yr, based on Thais dos Santos, PAHO’s advisor on arboviral illnesses.
Many contaminated folks don’t get sick, however some expertise headache, fever and flu-like signs. Extreme instances may cause critical bleeding, shock and dying. Repeated infections might be particularly harmful.
Dengue instances often surge through the moist season, however by late March, Puerto Rico already had declared an epidemic, with officers warning final month that it can’t be managed until residents cooperate. The U.S. territory has reported greater than 4,900 instances and not less than 9 deaths to date this yr. Victims embody a 17-year-old lady and a 31-year-old girl.
The instances in Puerto Rico almost quadrupled from final yr, based on authorities information.
Lydia Platón, a 55-year-old English professor on the College of Puerto Rico, acquired dengue in October. “You may have fever on a regular basis. You may have horrible chills,” she mentioned. “I don’t really feel that my vitality has returned but.”
Her neighborhood reported 5 instances in six weeks, which she blames on heavy rains on the time and stagnant and accrued water. One of many instances was her 17-year-old daughter. Platón mentioned she now lights incense and sprays herself with repellant each afternoon.
Puerto Rico officers are urging folks to eliminate stagnant water the place mosquitoes lay eggs. The federal government in Trinidad and Tobago has began issuing fines to folks whose properties have develop into breeding websites for mosquitoes.
This yr, greater than one-third of instances in Costa Rica, Mexico and Paraguay have been reported in youngsters youthful than 15, with Guatemala reporting a excessive variety of little one deaths, Barbosa mentioned.
Vaccines against dengue have been launched in Peru, Brazil and Argentina, with Honduras slated to obtain them subsequent yr, however they’re meant principally for kids and are simplest in these already contaminated with dengue as soon as, dos Santos mentioned.
She famous that provides are restricted and that vaccines usually are not anticipated to have a big effect on transmission. She confused that preventive measures stay essential.
“If there’s no mosquito, there’s no dengue,” she mentioned.
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