Dengue Infected More than 1.5 Million People in Latin America Last Year

Published January 15, 2011

Graves are fumigated in the General Cemetery of San Salvador, El Salvador. Latin American countries are shellling out big money on medicine and fumigation to fight dengue fever, which killed 1,000 people in the region in 2010.

Governments throughout Latin America are ramping up dengue prevention campaigns after 1.5 million people were infected and over 1,000 people in the region died of the disease in 2010.

There have already been deaths from dengue fever this year, the most recent one in Perú, where the deaths are exceeding hospital capacity – and it has forced the city hospital to install 40 additional beds. The latest death brings to five the total number of dengue deaths in Perú this year.

In Bolivia, there were six dengue deaths in 2010. The country’s health officials are in high alert after 17 were sickened by the disease so far this year, Health Minister Mauricio Rousseau told Efe. Dengue is transmitted by mosquitoes and can cause hemorrhaging or organ dysfunction.

“There were three deaths that may have been caused by dengue although they have not been clinically confirmed,â€