Argentina has recorded 232,996 dengue cases so far in the 2023/24 season, Reuters reported, citing the latest official data. Scientists say warmer weather is a large part of the reason: mosquitoes are hatching earlier and showing up in cooler parts of the country than before.
The tally sits well above the previous all-time high of 130,000, set last season, and is five times the figure at the same point a year ago. Cases normally spike in late summer, around March-April. This year they began climbing far earlier.
Sylvia Fischer, a doctor in biological sciences and researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET), described the shift in timing. “The increase in the number of mosquitoes at the end of spring is getting earlier and earlier,” she said.
The disease is also moving south. Fischer said scientists now find it more often in cooler regions of Argentina’s south. “These are all places where a few years ago it could not be found,” she said. She linked this to a wider regional trend, with warmer weather, in part tied to climate change, stretching the mosquito season.
Her forecast was blunt. “If I had to extrapolate, I would say that we have the possibility of having dengue epidemics perhaps every year.”
Hospitals and pharmacies feel the strain
The illness is sometimes called “break-bone fever” because of the severe muscle and joint pain. Patients can also have high fever, headache, vomiting and a skin rash.
The outbreak has put hospitals under strain. Insect repellent has vanished from shelves, and sellers raise prices whenever they get stock. The government has moved to ease imports of mosquito spray to meet demand.
Leda Guzzi, an infectious disease doctor, said she has many patients in hospital with dengue. Most cases are not severe, she said, but the sheer number could produce a deadlier outbreak next year, because people will catch the virus a second time.
“The disease has spread tremendously and we really think next year is going to be very difficult because there are going to be many second episodes of dengue,” Guzzi said.
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