Dengue deaths top 1,000 mark in 2024
Brazil surpassed the mark of 1,000 deaths by dengue fever in 2024 on Wednesday, a number close to last year’s all-time record.
The Health Ministry’s online dashboard monitoring the dengue emergency registered 1,020 deaths by this afternoon, compared to 1,094 deaths in the entirety of 2023. Another 1,531 deaths were under investigation.
Brazil has already recorded over 2.6 million probable infections, making the 2024 outbreak the worst on record in any calendar year. Per the government’s estimates, a worst-case scenario that looks increasingly close to materializing could see the tally top the 4.2 million mark. That would be close to the 2023 total for all the Americas, per the Pan-American Health Organization.
Dengue surges are regular occurrences during summertime. But, according to Health Minister Nísia Trindade, “the record heat in the country and the above-average rainfall since last year, even before the summer, have increased the number of mosquito breeding sites in Brazil, even in regions that had few cases of the disease.”
In February, Brazil started a dengue vaccination campaign, becoming the first country in the world to do so. Officials have struggled with the low number of doses sold by pharmaceutical company Takeda, as well as low demand for the vaccine. For now, the vaccine is offered only to children and teenagers aged 10 to 14, a major target of the far-right’s anti-vaccine discourse.
On Tuesday, Health Ministry officials told a press conference that new dengue cases are stable or declining in 20 out of Brazil’s 27 states, an expected development with the end of summer.
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