DThe most serious dengue outbreak in Brazil’s history continues. Since the beginning of the year, more than 6 million confirmed and probable infections with the dengue virus have been registered in the South American country, according to the Ministry of Health. In the previous largest epidemic in 2015, around 1.6 million dengue cases were recorded throughout the year.
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.
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.