MIAMI.- The World Health Organization (WHO) warned of an alarming increase in dengue cases in the world so far in 2024, attributing it to different factors such as climate change and globalization.
Dengue is a disease caused by a virus that is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected mosquitoes, which in its mildest form can present symptoms such as high fever, headache, body pain, nausea and skin rashes.
It is estimated that between 100 and 400 million infections occur worldwide each year and that 3.8 billion people live in countries where dengue is endemic, the majority located in Asia, Africa and the Americas.
According to the data presented in the webinar ‘Dengue epidemiological situation and response’, between January and April 2024, 7.9 million cases and 4,000 deaths have been recorded in 79 countries around the world. A figure that exceeds the total number of cases registered during the year 2023, when 6.6 million cases of dengue were reported.
To obtain the precise data, 161 countries included in the surveillance system were analyzed, of which 82 have not reported cases this year.
The epidemiologist of the WHE Acute Events Analysis Unit, Martina Mcmenamin, stated that although the real figures are almost nine million, “until April 2024 there are more cases of dengue than in the entire year 2023.”
However, he pointed out that “we must take into account the fatality rate, which has been reducing slightly, but this has no impact, it does not mean that there are fewer cases.”
America is the most affected region
The expert explained that America and Asia are the regions with the highest incidence of cases. On the Latin American continent, infections due to this virus exceed 9.3 million with more than 4,500 deaths.
Among the most affected nations in Latin America is Brazil in third place, with more than 6.2 million cases and 3,600 confirmed deaths from dengue until the end of April, one of the epidemics that has reached levels never before seen in history.
Other Latin American countries where dengue is endemic and have had the highest transmission of the disease so far this year are Argentina, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica. Additionally, from French Guiana, Paraguay, countries with very small populations that are affected by the virus.
“It must be taken into account that in some territories the peak of cases has not yet been experienced so cases may increase,” Mcmenamin emphasized.
What is the reason for the increase?
The head of the vector control unit and tropical diseases treated at the WHO, Raman Velayudhan, indicated that the increase experienced in dengue cases is due to different factors such as the increase in temperature due to climate change that creates favorable conditions for the spread of mosquitoes.
He explained, in turn, that heat also triggers the multiplication of the virus within the mosquito’s body, “which has helped the spread of the disease.” Another cause is the change in the distribution of the Aedes mosquito as a vector that It is now present in more than 150 countries.
“This is not being followed as it should because we did not know that there was this silent spread and there are many places where temperatures are now favorable for the mosquito and they are spreading in countries where they have never had this presence before” Velayudhan noted.
Alert in Europe
Those places include Europe, where dengue cases have multiplied. The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has warned about the rise in the trend caused by global movements and climatic conditions.
According to official data, in 2023 there were 130 cases of indigenous dengue in the European Union and in Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, detected in patients with no travel history compared to 71 infections in 2022, according to the latest report.
This panorama, generated mainly by the increase in travel to areas where people can contract the infection and transmit it upon their return to Europe, shows the possibility of dengue becoming an endemic disease on the European continent.
@Lydr05
Source: With information from the World Health Organization and EuropaPress
