MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Considerable increase in dengue cases in Argentina

So far this year 358 people have been reported to have died of dengue in Argentina

The number of dengue cases in Argentina this year has crossed the 512,000 threshold representing a 318% year-on-year increase, despite a ten-week downward trend presently. The Health Ministry's National Epidemiological Bulletin (BEN) mentioned 512,458 cases in the first 24 weeks of the year, or 97% of the 529,625 contagions this season, which began in Epidemiological Week 31 of 2023.

Regarding the number of fatalities, 358 occurred this year out of the 369 during the season. The disease has autochthonous viral circulation in 19 of the country's 24 districts. The highest number of cases was detected in the central region (61.4%), followed by the northwest region (23.3%) and the northeast (13.1%), the study also found. The average age of the deceased is 49 years, with casualties in 18 of the country's 24 jurisdictions.

“The analysis of information for the epidemiological characterization of dengue and other arboviruses is carried out by season, understood as a period of 52 weeks from SE 31 of one year to SE 30 of the following year, to consider the epidemic months as a whole,” the Health Ministry explained. “In a country-wide analysis, there has been a decrease in the number of cases since 10 weeks ago, after the three weeks with the highest number of cases, between SE12 and SE14, when an average of 60,884 cases per week were recorded,” the BEN also noted.

“Deceased cases were recorded in all age groups, with the highest mortality rate in those over 80 years of age,” the BEN stated. Most of these patients had “fever, headache, myalgias and arthralgias, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain.”

”In cumulative terms, 529,625 cases of dengue (95% autochthonous, 3% under investigation, and 2% imported) were reported from week 31 of 2023 -end of July and beginning of August- to week 24 of 2024 -mid-June-, of which 512,458 (97%) correspond to the year 2024. The accumulated incidence so far for the season is 1,125 cases per 100,000 inhabitants,“ the document read.

”In the present season, three serotypes were identified in autochthonous cases, with a predominance of DEN-2, followed by DEN-1 (between them they concentrate more than 99.9% of the cases) and some few cases of DEN-3 registered at the beginning of 2024″, the bulletin also pointed out.