Health Alerts

A change in the dominant dengue serotype circulating in the departments of Loreto, San Martín and Madre de Dios and a sharp increase in cases in the same jungle regions has led to the proclamation of a health emergency. There are reports of 2,500 dengue infections and seven related deaths since the beginning of the year. And across the Americas, the Pan American Health Organization’s regional epidemiological dengue update for 2019 revealed that the previous highest case total recorded in the epidemic period of 2015-6 was upped by 30% last year, with more than 3 million cases reported. Also, year-on-year increases from 2018 were experienced in 34 countries and territories – from three to as much as ten times higher in some cases - while incidence rates were highest in Nicaragua, Belize, Honduras, Brazil and El Salvador. As 2020 begins, the update stated that Bolivia, Honduras, Mexico, and Paraguay had already ‘reported an increase of two to three times more dengue cases in 2020 compared to the same period in 2019’. Read more.