Health authorities in Rio de Janeiro are speaking of record hospitalizations of patients with dengue, Agencia Brasil reported Friday. In just one day in January, Rio de Janeiro's municipal health network had 362 people admitted with the condition, thus surpassing the previous record dating back to 2008. Municipal Health Secretary Daniel Soranz confirmed that the city was facing an epidemic of the disease.
Although Paraguayan health authorities are already speaking of a dengue epidemic, particularly among children, the South American country's sanitary network has been reported to be ready for whatever lies ahead, even if combined with a surge of Covid-19 cases, it was reported in Asunción.
Health authorities in the Argentine province of Corrientes (northeast) Friday confirmed the death of a patient who had tested positive for dengue, thus increasing the number of fatalities to three this summer.
Argentine health authorities have issued an epidemiological alert after a man died of dengue in the city of Corrientes. The patient, who was reported to have underlying pathologies, had been rushed from his San Luis del Palmar residence to the Escuela Hogar hospital, in the provincial capital.
Health officials in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro have confirmed a case of type 4 dengue fever, which has not been seen in the area since 2018, Agencia Brasil reported. In response, measures are being considered to control the spread of the mosquitoes that transmit the disease (Aedes aegypti). More than 6,000 dengue virus cases have been identified this year, with 5,532 type 1 cases, 820 type 2 cases, and only one type 4 case.
Argentine health authorities Thursday announced that the Japanese-developed TAK-003 vaccine against dengue was already available in the South American country at a cost of AR$ 37,500 (around US$ 38, at the unofficial “blue” rate).
Argentina's National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (Conicet) has identified in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (AMBA) and in the country's northwestern provinces genetic mutations in the Aedes aegypti mosquito (carrier of the dengue virus) that turned them resistant to normally lethal doses of pesticides, the national news agency Telam reported amid a dengue outbreak, which has resulted in 129,150 cases and 65 deaths over the past 12 months.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is to train more than 6,000 healthcare professionals to assist Peru in the dengue epidemic, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced Wednesday. Peru is experiencing one of its worst dengue crises, with 81,202 confirmed cases and at least 193 deaths.
Scientists in Brazil are working on a large-scale mosquito factory in a move to protect up to 70 million people from viruses such as dengue, it was reported by the journal Nature.
Paraguayan health authorities last week confirmed at least 90 deaths this year had been caused by chikungunya fever, while Uruguay detected its first imported case of the malady. One more case was also confirmed in the last days of 2022, according to the latest report from Paraguay's Health Ministry released on Friday.