2023-12-22 14:10:45
The global incidence of dengue has increased significantly over the past 20 years, representing a substantial public health challenge. This is highlighted by the World Health Organization, which from 2000 to 2019 documented a tenfold increase in cases reported worldwide, which went from 500,000 to 5.2 million. The WHO has assessed the risk at a global level as “high”, considering the growing transmission as well as the number of cases and deaths.
2019 marked an unprecedented peak, with infections spread across 129 countries. After a slight decline in cases between 2020-2022 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and a lower reporting rate – continues the WHO – in 2023 an increase was observed globally, with multiple epidemics, which occurred in areas previously unaffected by Dengue. Since the beginning of the year, ongoing transmission, combined with an unexpected spike in dengue infections, has led to an all-time high of more than five million cases and more than 5,000 deaths reported in more than 80 countries. Nearly 80% of these cases, or 4.1 million, were reported in the Americas region. Autochthonous outbreaks of Dengue have been recorded in the European Region. Significant numbers but, the WHO specifies, probably underestimated since the majority of primary infections are asymptomatic and reporting of Dengue is not mandatory in many countries.
Several factors are associated with the increasing risk of the spread of the Dengue epidemic, including the change in the distribution of vectors (infected mosquitoes, mainly Aedes Aegypti and Aedes albopictus), the consequences of the El Nino phenomenon in 2023 and the climate change that it will bring to an increase in temperatures and high precipitation and humidity; the fragility of health systems during the Covid-19 pandemic; political and financial instability in countries facing complex humanitarian crises and high population movements.
The weakness of surveillance systems in many affected countries – concludes the WHO – may have led to delays in reporting and response and failure to identify symptoms, contributing to an increase in the serious outcomes of dengue.
Read also
#Dengue #High #risk #globally