In the last week, 6 new deaths from dengue
were registered in the country
for a total of 13, an increase of
85 percent
compared to all the deaths that had been left so far by the current wave of the virus transmitted by the
Aedes aegypti
mosquito .
The data
does not appear
in the latest update of the epidemiological situation released this Saturday by the Ministry of Health.
It does integrate, somewhat overlappingly, the 72 pages of the Epidemiological Bulletin corresponding to week 12, which collects information until March 29.
This information also confirms the
first death from dengue in the province of Buenos Aires
(the southernmost lethal case in the continent that has occurred so far), a person who had a history of traveling abroad.
From the district they had only spoken six days ago of a "probable case".
The rest of the deaths have been registered so far in Santa Fe (4), Tucumán (3), Salta (3) and Jujuy (1).
The deceased were
5 women and 8 men
, with ages ranging from 21 to 87 years.
Thirteen deaths already means
half of what was registered
until the end of July in the record epidemic of 2020. The mark on this occasion was reached
in just one month
(the first death is from epidemiological week 8).
And there are still four months of risk ahead.
Laboratory analysis of dengue cases in a Buenos Aires health center.
Photo: Maxi Failla
Severe dengue increases your chances of a second contagion, which is always with
a different strain
than the one contracted the first time: for the original, the body generates antibodies.
Asked about the ghosts that this point unleashes, Pablo Scapellato, head of infectious diseases at Hospital Santojanni, sifted the risk: "A new infection will not necessarily trigger a serious condition."
There is no official national registry of
hospitalized for dengue
.
In Tucumán, the Ministry of Health reported
80 boarding schools
.
The latest Epidemiological Bulletin of the City of Buenos Aires indicates that only
4 percent
of the 1,166 confirmed cases in the district (47 patients) required hospitalization, of which 5 people demanded intensive care "without warning signs."
Currently, the strains circulating in the country are
DEN-1
(in 7 jurisdictions) and
DEN-2
(in 10 jurisdictions).
Serotypes 3 and 4 are not included in the national report.
But there are provincial reports that give an account of the
DEN-3
.
The City of Buenos Aires is the district with the most registered cases after Tucumán, Salta, Santa Fe, Jujuy and Santiago del Estero.
7.50
percent of the country's infections
are suffered by Buenos Aires.
There is no province that today is free of dengue.
But ten, so far,
have not added autochthonous cases
, but all imported.
They are: Mendoza, San Juan, San Luis, Misiones, Chubut, La Pampa, Neuquén, Río Negro, Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego.
La Rioja also had no local cases, but at the close of the last report an outbreak was detected.
A laboratory image of Aedes Aegypti mosquito larvae.
Photo: EFE
These provinces together add
just 49 cases
of dengue, 0.30 percent of the more than 16,000 detected in the country, which gives the pattern of the weight that
community circulation
has in the exponential growth of the curve of infected.
"We knew it was going to happen"
The Buenos Aires Minister of Health, Nicolás Kreplak, said in recent days that in the Province there are "38 cases with signs of concern" and added: "We are at the peak of an epidemic that we knew was going to happen
.
"
For this reason, there are experts like Scapellato who wonder why, if the authorities were aware of what was coming -
Clarín had alerted him in September of last year
- greater efforts
were not devoted to the prevention
of dengue from the first days of the anus.
"It should have started earlier," said the doctor.
That would have translated into
premature public campaigns
to scrap and eliminate mosquito breeding grounds.
The habit is not installed and the only way is the official insistence on mass media and social networks.
Two days ago, Kreplak announced on Twitter a "territorial operation in Quilmes to raise awareness about care against dengue and chikungunya."
Condemned to the state acceptance of a tragic destiny, when the epidemic occurs , repellents and other tools
are left
to help drive away the transmitting vector.
But it is only mitigate
.
From a health point of view, delayed reactions can no longer prevent the wave from growing.
This year, in addition, had the particularity that
a very high level of community circulation
was unleashed soon , 90 percent of the total cases, higher than the great epidemic of 2020.
The Government is concerned to report that the current brand of cases -autochthonous and imported-
is lower
than that registered in 2020 at this same time of the calendar.
But the gap
is narrowing
: two weeks ago it was 30 percent and now it stands at 10 percent.
At least, this rise in dengue contrasts with the
consolidated drop in Covid
.
In the last week, for the first time, the only death
in the entire country
occurred in Salta .
It is the lowest mortality floor since the pandemic began, as a result of the abrupt drop in cases in the last month.
A context that is the
opposite
of the one that accompanied the
2020 dengue epidemic
, when Covid did not stop growing.
The good news is that now, as one curve climbs, the other comes downhill.
But with one wave or another, the result would tend to be repeated if the water covers us again.
PS
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