The 5 dengue facts you need to know at the end of the last epidemic without a vaccine

Almost in the final stretch of May, dengue is beginning to cease to be at least immediately a threat to the country. It is also the last season – the worst of all – crossed without the possibility of using a vaccine as a preventive measure. ANMAT's recent authorization of Takeda's Japanese vaccine opens up a different picture for future epidemics. As a balance of what has been experienced, there are five facts to highlight:

1- More than 100 thousand cases

Dengue in Argentina broke all records by surpassing -according to the latest accumulated official figures- more than 100,100 cases (675,2020). This is almost double what until now was the record season, that of 19. However, the curve is in clear decline: in epidemiological week 13 – the last measure – fewer cases were already registered than in the same one three years ago. This is consistent with the fact that, from week <>, cases are only going down.

2- Southernmost dengue

For the first time, an autochthonous case of dengue was recorded in La Pampa. This is the southernmost region of the country in which local circulation of the disease transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito has been detected. The case was registered by a private health center in the town of Santa Isabel and later corroborated by the Julio Maiztegui Institute. It joins two other exceptional autochthonous cases registered a month ago in Mendoza.

3- Peak mortality

Mortality from dengue affected more women up to the age of 60, while from that age onwards it affected men more. In total, 56 percent of the fatalities were women and 44 percent were men. It is the opposite of 2020, when deceased males doubled females. The total number of deaths has remained almost unchanged in recent weeks and stands at 57. Jujuy and Salta are the provinces with the most deaths (10 each), followed by Tucumán and Santa Fe (with 9). Then appears the City of Buenos Aires (7).

4- Consolidation of DEN-2

Deaths from the DEN-2 serotype at least doubled those from DEN-1, which only confirms the greater aggressiveness of this strain, which has also been dominant in the country for the first time, with 81.37 percent of infections. The latter also put those who had previously been infected with DEN-1 or DEN-4 (in 2020 they accounted for 79 and 29 percent of cases respectively) at greater risk because they had now been infected with a different serotype.

5- Greater local circulation

Beyond the historical record of cases and deaths, there is one last key fact in the new epidemiological scenario. Of the total reported cases, only 1,249 have been imported. That is, 1.24 percent. Since the beginning of 2023 the virus had a much higher community circulation than in previous seasons. In 2020, at this time of year, imported cases represented 4.37 percent. This shows that dengue, over the years, becomes more and more a local disease rather than a foreign one.

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