Argentina Reports Nearly 4,900 Cases Of Dengue In 1st 5 Weeks Of 2016 - Worst Outbreak Since 2009
BUENOS AIRES — Argentina is grappling with its worst outbreak of dengue in seven years as the population of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which also transmit the Zika virus, expands in the subtropical northeast of the country.
The outbreak, which some officials are describing as an epidemic, has the authorities in Misiones and Formosa Provinces scrambling to arrest the spread of the virus. There were nearly 4,900 reported cases of dengue in Argentina in the first five weeks of the year, according to data compiled by the Pan American Health Organization. Experts say the figure could be 10 times higher.
Officials have attributed only one death to the virus, but with weeks of the Southern Hemisphere’s summer remaining — providing ideal breeding conditions for the mosquitoes — the outbreak has not yet peaked, experts say.
In 2009, the year of Argentina’s last severe dengue outbreak, described as perhaps its worst ever, there were nearly 27,000 reported cases and five deaths. “We’re expecting something even worse than in 2009,” said Hernán G. Solari, a physics professor at the University of Buenos Aires who researches dengue and Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. “The outbreak will keep growing until March or April.”
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http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/18/world/americas/argentina-battles-major-outbreak-of-dengue-as-mosquito-population-swells.html?_r=0