Nearly 4 billion people are at risk of infection with Aedes bacteria – Portal Política Distrital

Written by Paula LaBoissiere

Nearly four billion people worldwide are at risk of infections transmitted by Aedes species – either Aedes aegypti or Aedes albopictus, which together cause diseases such as dengue, Zika, chikungunya, and yellow fever. This warning comes from the head of the Arbovirus Team of the World Health Organization, Diana Rojas Alvarez.

While participating – via video – in a meeting at the headquarters of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in Brasilia, Diana highlighted that estimates indicate that this number – four billion – will increase by another billion over the coming decades, mainly due to factors being taken into account. Such as global warming and the adaptation of Aedes to high altitudes. Mosquitoes can now be found, she said, for example in the mountains of Nepal and Colombia, as well as in the countries of the Andean region.

Disease outbreak

The World Health Organization is actively monitoring dengue outbreaks and epidemics in at least 23 countries, 17 of which are in the Americas – including Brazil.

According to Diana, cases of the disease have been constantly increasing over the past four decades. But in 2023, there was what she called a very large increase in both cases and deaths from the disease.

“A new record,” he said, citing more than six million cases and more than seven thousand deaths from dengue fever in 80 countries.

Diana believes that the expansion of the cases is due to environmental factors such as increased rainfall and therefore humidity that helps mosquitoes reproduce, in addition to rising global temperatures, both phenomena resulting from so-called climate change.

She also said that it is necessary to improve case reporting and surveillance systems of countries for arboviruses to expand public health prevention and control measures.