Dengue is sweeping across the Western Hemisphere in numbers not seen since record-keeping began more than four decades ago, with experts warning that rising temperatures and rapid urbanization are accelerating the pace of infections.
A record more than 4 million cases have been reported throughout the Americas and Caribbean so far this year, surpassing a previous record set in 2019, with officials from the Bahamas to Brazil warning of crowded clinics and new infections daily. More than 2,000 deaths in that region also have been reported.
“This year is the year we’ve been seeing the most dengue in recorded history,” said Thais dos Santos, adviser on surveillance and control of arboviral diseases with the Pan American Health Organization, the regional office of the World Health Organization in the Americas. She noted that record keeping began in 1980. “Vector borne diseases, especially these diseases that are transmitted by mosquitoes … provide us a really good sentinel of what is happening with climate change.”
Poor sanitation and a lack of robust health systems have contributed to a rise in cases, but experts say droughts and floods linked to climate change are causing greater transmission of the virus, with stored water and heavy rains attracting mosquitoes.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Dengue is sweeping across the Western Hemisphere in numbers not seen since record-keeping began more than four decades ago, with experts warning that rising temperatures and rapid urbanization are accelerating the pace of infections.
Poor sanitation and a lack of robust health systems have contributed to a rise in cases, but experts say droughts and floods linked to climate change are causing greater transmission of the virus, with stored water and heavy rains attracting mosquitoes.
Impoverished countries struggle the most with dengue, with poor sanitation creating fertile breeding grounds for infected mosquitoes, a lack of air conditioning and screened windows allowing the insects to roam freely and rickety health systems groaning under a growing caseload.
Farrar, chief scientist for the World Health Organization, said dengue is very difficult to treat in part because patients often delay in seeking medical care and because the virus can progress so quickly.
Dr. Georgiana Gordon-Strachan, director of the Tropical Metabolism Research Unit at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, said the island’s summer of 2023 provided the perfect conditions for its newest outbreak.
Health officials also keep urging people to discard old tires, plastic containers and other recipients that collect rainwater, as well as to sleep with netting over their beds and wear pants and long-sleeved shirts.
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