MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina has more reported cases of dengue (25.000) than of coronavirus (5,200)

In Argentina since August last year until April 2020 the notifications system has reported 52,594 suspected cases of dengue, Zica, Chicungunya and Yellow fever.

Argentina officially has 5.208 COVID 19 confirmed cases with a death toll of 273 since the pandemic broke out. However the country is suffering from even more acute disease infection, the mosquito-transmitted dengue, with some 25.000 confirmed cases, and of which 5.601 in the last three weeks.

 According to the latest Epidemiology report from the Health ministry, “the average notifications in the last three weeks was 5.601, which is almost ten times the average of the same three weeks in the 2018/19 season”. The report adds that the number of suspected cases is similar to that of the previous season, but since week 12 of 2020, at the end of March, the peak soared.

In other words, the accumulated number of notifications between week 31 of 2019 and week 16 of 2020 is six to eight times greater than in the 2018/19 and 2017/18 seasons respectively for the same period of time.

In Argentina since August last year until April 2020 the notifications system has reported 52,594 suspected cases of dengue, Zica, Chicungunya and Yellow fever.

Of that total, 25.764 cases are dengue, of which 22.320 have no previous background of overseas travel, some 1.475 did travel to places with no outbreaks registered and 1,969 cases are under investigation.

The two districts in Argentina with the highest incidence of dengue cases are the City of Buenos Aires, and the northern province of Jujuy, next to Bolivia. In the City of Buenos Aires, some 5,909 cases have been confirmed, 94,8% local contagion. In Jujuy province, until Monday there were 2.544 cases reported in six districts which are under sanitary emergency.

Jujuy's Chief medical officer Carlos Ripoll said that the province is suffering the most serious outbreak since dengue appeared in the area, which was 2004.

Last August the Pan American Health Organization, the WHO branch for Latin America had warned about a new dengue epidemic cycle in the Americas following two years of a low incidence of the disease with an increase in dengue, and grave dengue cases in several territories of the region.

At that moment the number of dengue cases reported in the region was 2,981 769, another 27.164 considered grave dengue and 1,372 deaths. Last February WHO/PHO again warned that the number of cases reported until week 52 of 2019, was the largest in the dengue history in the Americas, some with 30% more case than in the last major epidemic's year 2015.