SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Dengue fever Infections are spreading across the Western Hemisphere at numbers not seen since records began more than 40 years ago, and experts say rising temperatures and rapid urbanization are accelerating the pace of infections. I’m warning you.
More than 4 million infections have been reported across the Americas and the Caribbean so far this year, surpassing the previous record set in 2019, and officials from the Bahamas to Brazil are closing clinics. It warns of crowding and daily new infections. More than 2,000 deaths have also been reported in the region.
“This year is the worst year for dengue fever on record,” said Tais dos Santos, advisor on arboviral disease surveillance and control at the Pan American Health Organization, the World Health Organization’s regional office for the Americas. Ta. . She noted that recordkeeping began with her in 1980. She said: “Vector-borne diseases, especially these diseases that are transmitted by mosquitoes, give us a really good surveillance tool to see what’s happening with climate change.”
Poor sanitation and the lack of a robust health system are contributing to the rise in cases, but experts say climate change-related droughts and floods are driving the spread of the virus and that the virus is building up. It is pointed out that water and heavy rain attract mosquitoes.
Dr. Gabriela Pas-Bailey, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s dengue division in Puerto Rico, said rising temperatures expand the habitat of mosquitoes, allowing the virus to reproduce faster in their bodies and increasing their viral load. He pointed out that this would happen. And the chance of infection increases.
Dr. Jeremy Farrar, the World Health Organization’s chief scientist, said in an interview that “these infections are a symptom of larger underlying trends that are happening in the world.” “Tackling climate change appears to be very difficult, with so many countries now becoming more urbanized, dengue and other diseases are becoming more frequent and increasingly complex to deal with. I understand.”
Dos Santos said authorities are aware of “many new developments” in the surge in dengue cases, including record temperatures, an extended season and a further north and south spread of dengue than usual. For example, California reported its first two locally transmitted dengue cases this year, and Florida reported 138 similar cases, a record for the state. Paz-Bailey said 65 cases were reported in Florida last year.
This year’s Northern Hemisphere summer was the hottest on record., August is 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the pre-industrial average. And so far, 2023 is the second-hottest year on record, according to the European Climate Change Agency Copernicus.
As of early November, more than 4.5 million dengue cases had been reported worldwide, with more than 4,000 deaths reported in 80 countries. Farah believes the world record of 5.2 million infections set in 2019 could be surpassed this year.
“Dengue fever is an increasing concern in the Americas, but it is now an almost global phenomenon,” he said.
countries like bangladesh There are record numbers of infections and deaths. The South Asian country’s government has reported more than 313,700 infections and more than 1,600 deaths, most of which occurred within three days of hospitalization, according to publicly available data.
Mosquitoes that transmit dengue fever have also been found in 22 European countries, with regional outbreaks occurring in France, Italy, and Spain. In August, the first ever dengue fever outbreak was reported in the Central African country of Chad.
According to the World Health Organization, dengue fever affects about 129 countries, putting about half of the world’s population at risk. The virus is primarily transmitted by infected female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Aedes aegypti stings its host to obtain egg protein. The virus can cause severe headaches, fever, vomiting, rashes, and other symptoms. Most infected people have no symptoms, but severe cases can cause plasma leakage, which can lead to death.
Even worse, repeated infections increase the risk of developing severe dengue fever, experts say.
Mosquitoes that transmit dengue also spread chikungunya and Zika viruses, but Paz-Bailey said there is less circulation of the other two viruses due to past immunity, and it is extremely difficult for mosquitoes to transmit two viruses at once. It added that it was rare.
The World Health Organization warned in January that dengue fever is a pandemic threat and the world’s fastest-spreading mosquito-borne disease. While there is a vaccine, Specially bred mosquitoes containing a bacterium called Wolbachia To combat dengue fever, there is no specific treatment once infected.
It is unclear how many, if any, countries have requested vaccines from manufacturers, but the Pan American Health Organization said its Immunization Technical Advisory Group recently met to discuss dengue vaccines and, if finalized, will make recommendations. He said he would make it public.
The Americas broke regional records for dengue earlier this year, with Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Peru reporting the most cases in the world.Peru A state of emergency has been declared in some areas. After reporting a historic number of cases.
The Caribbean region is also battling a surge in cases, with the Caribbean Public Health Agency reporting a 15% increase in confirmed cases by early October compared to the same period last year. .
Officials on the French Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique declared an ongoing outbreak in August. Martinique, for example, is reporting an average of 800 new cases per week on the island of about 394,000 people.
Meanwhile, Jamaica and the Bahamas declared outbreaks in September, followed by Barbados in October.
“Outbreaks of dengue and other mosquito-borne diseases pose serious threats to health, tourism and socio-economic development, and the associated risks and ramifications should not be underestimated,” the Caribbean Public Health Agency said. said in a statement.
Poor countries suffer most from dengue fever, where poor sanitation creates a fertile breeding ground for infected mosquitoes, and a lack of air conditioning and screens allows insects to roam freely, increasing the number of infections. The rickety medical system is groaning.
Farah, the World Health Organization’s chief scientist, said dengue fever is so difficult to treat because patients often delay seeking medical care and because the virus progresses so quickly. Caring for patients is difficult because staff need to ensure they are getting the right amount of fluids, which requires a lot of time and supervision, he said.
“Imagine having 1,000 such people who require sensitive clinical care. That can overwhelm the system very quickly,” he said.
Claude Burton, a 70-year-old retiree living in Jamaica, knows first-hand the strain on medical facilities. Last month, he started feeling worse and worse and finally saw a doctor.
After testing positive, he took an hour-long taxi ride from Ocho Rios to Kingston after doctors advised him to be hospitalized. At the first hospital he visited, the staff told him there were no available beds and turned him away. At the second hospital he went to, Burton spent two nights in a wheelchair until a bed became available.
“It was really bad,” he recalled, adding that he ended up spending four nights in the hospital with blood in his urine.
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 had perfect conditions for the latest outbreak.
“Heat is one of the causes of dengue fever,” she says.
Of greatest concern, she said, is that it is the second strain of dengue fever (the most severe of the four dengue strains) currently circulating in Jamaica.
To fight the virus, trucks are driving around Jamaica, Barbados and other Caribbean islands, fogging areas with products containing small amounts of pesticides. Health officials also continue to remind people to discard old tires, plastic containers and other rainwater catchers, sleep with nets over beds, and wear pants and long-sleeved shirts.
“Dengue poses a very important public health threat, so it’s really important that we have more active conversations about dengue,” Paz-Bailey said.