Diseases
More than six million dengue cases in Brazil
The yellow fever mosquito transmits various diseases, including the dengue virus. Photo
© Gustavo Amador/dpa
More than 4,000 people have already died this year in the South American country’s worst dengue epidemic to date. But there is hope: the transmission has recently slowed down.
According to the information, a total of 4,019 deaths due to dengue infection have been confirmed – in the whole of last year there were 1,179. A further 2,837 suspected cases are currently being investigated.
Transmission slows down
But the data also shows that the disease so far peaked in March with more than 1.7 million cases and has been declining since then. In April, the number remained high with almost 1.6 million cases – from May onwards, transmission slowed down with around 990,000 cases.
The increase is likely to have been caused by the heavy rainfall and high temperatures of the past few months. Under these conditions, the yellow fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti), which transmits the dengue virus, can thrive particularly well.
Dengue fever – sometimes called “bone-breaking disease” because of the pain – is widespread in the tropics and subtropics. However, not everyone infected becomes ill and the symptoms are often mild.