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WASHINGTON, CMC – The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) warns of what it calls the "complex situation" of dengue in Latin America and the Caribbean.
PAHO said the region is currently experiencing "a new epidemic cycle of the disease" after two years of low incidence.
According to the latest epidemiological update of the OPS, in the first seven months of 2019, more than two million people contracted the disease and 723 died.
OPS said the number of cases exceeded the total number of reported cases in 2017 and 2018 "although, so far, it remains below the number recorded in 2015-2016.
"The region is experiencing a new epidemic cycle of dengue, with a noticeable increase in the number of cases," said Dr. Marcos Espinal, director of the Department of Communicable Diseases and Environmental Determinants of Health of PAHO.
"The climate, environmental management and mosquito adaptation capacity may have compounded the complexity of the situation."
The OPS said that another feature of the current outbreak is that children under 15 years old seem to be among the most affected.
According to Dr. Espinal, this could be due to the fact that their age means that they have been less exposed to the virus in the past and that they therefore risk running out of immunity.
According to OPS, dengue fever is caused by a virus that contains four different but closely related serotypes: DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3, and DEN-4 – all of which circulate in the Americas.
"When a person is cured of infection, she acquires immunity for life against this serotype. However, subsequent infections caused by other serotypes increase the risk of contracting more severe forms of dengue fever. "
PAHO stated that serotype 2 was one of the most deadly and currently affecting children and adolescents.
Belize is among the top 10 dengue-affected countries in terms of new cases per 100,000 population.
The others are Nicaragua, Brazil, Honduras, Colombia, El Salvador, Paraguay, Guatemala, Mexico and Venezuela.
"Dengue fever is a domestic and community sanitation problem," said José Luis San Martin, PAHO Regional Advisor for Dengue.
"The most effective way to combat it is to eliminate its breeding sites in order to prevent the mosquito from reproducing because, without mosquitoes, there would be no transmission of dengue."
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