According to data provided by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay account for 89 percent of the people affected by dengue in Latin America. This figure represents a total of 1.7 million infected since the beginning of the year. 

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What alarms the authorities most is that infection rates are not decreasing despite government policy in some countries in the region to control the disease.This is the case of the Brazilian government, which has launched major campaigns to contain the disease, fumigating neighborhoods, vaccinating the sick and providing them with primary care to prevent them from dying at home. 

Over the last two decades, the incidence of dengue fever worldwide has risen sharply and has become a serious public health problem. Last year, Latin America was already the region hardest hit by the infection. However, this season the number of cases is higher than in the previous period.

The epidemic is affecting the entire region in general, but the greatest impact is in the Southern Cone. Mexico and Central American countries have registered more than 78,000 cases; Bolivia, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador have reported more than 122,000 caseswhile Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay account for 1,780,929 cases.

Dengue is generally associated with warm climates, where the rainy season increases the plague of the aedes aegypti, the vector that transmits the disease. 

The scientific community is alarmed that the proliferation of this disease in regions where it was not common is due to climate change altering natural cycles. Now winters tend to be very cold but short and summers are very hot and long. 

Rainy seasons are extended, providing a natural habitat for the mosquito, which has adapted to the new conditions. One of the countries that has been surprised by this disease is Uruguay, which generally enjoyed cold temperatures but in the last two decades has been affected by great storms or terrible droughts. One of the major climatic alterations in this region is the well-known El Niño phenomenon, that goes through periods of drought or rain, becoming more aggressive each year. 

Another of the major problems that the authorities are facing in dealing with the disease is the issue of insalubrity. It turns out that the highest rates of infection are found among the most disadvantaged population, in neighborhoods with a precarious public health system that do not have sewage systems.

This makes it difficult to keep track of the number of infected people and to stop the spread of the disease. As a result, the disease often worsens and becomes fatal, which is clinically known as severe dengue, dengue hemorrhagic fever or dengue shock syndrome, resulting in death.

We see that the combination of climatic phenomena generated by man-made disturbances in nature has caused a prolongation of the rainy season. Thus, the mosquitoes that transmit the disease find in this region favorable conditions for their propagation. This factor, together with the high levels of poverty and marginalization in which a large number of people live, has opened the way for the epidemic to become relentless.

 

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