Coronavirus is not the only outbreak that is taking place right now

<p class = "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "While we are all aware of the crisis it has generated Wuhan's coronavirus – which already has an official name: COVID-19 – is still causing problems in other parts of the world, and serious, as it is the Dengue outbreak that is taking place in Latin America. “data-reactid =” 22 “> While we are all awaiting the crisis that has generated the Wuhan coronavirus – which already has an official name: COVID-19 – problems are still being generated in other parts of the world, and serious, as it is the Dengue outbreak that is taking place in Latin America.

And here, when we say “outbreak” we are talking about figures that really scare. In 2019 there was a notable increase in Dengue cases, ending the year with a figure of more than three million infected – 3,139,355 specific cases. Compared to the nearly 75,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus, we can see the difference.

It is true that comparing raw numbers, in the case of epidemics, does not make much sense. Mortality is more important, and there the coronavirus has an advantage: the number of cases of infection that end in death is much higher in the case of COVID-19 compared to Dengue.

But there is one factor that we should take into account, and they are recurrent infections. It is not yet known for sure if the new coronavirus can re-infect someone who has already gotten rid of the disease – with many viruses a contagion implies immunization, but with COVID-19 being an RNA virus, it may not be so. On the other hand, Dengue can be “caught again”.

That is not that the disease is repeated. The problem is that the second Dengue infection is usually more serious than the first. The Dengue differentiates between normal Dengue and severe or hemorrhagic Dengue. And the second is more likely to be deadly.

Yes there is a difference that can explain why one case attracts so much attention, and another one unnoticed: the method of contagion. Coronaviruses are aerial: a sneeze from someone infected can spread the disease. Dengue does not, Dengue requires a vector – the Aedes aegypti mosquito – to transmit the disease.

Nor should we ignore it in this case. Because one of the reasons given by experts for the increase in the number of cases is that the mosquito that transmits Dengue has expanded the places where it can survive. The cause is climate change, and the consequence is that it survives at much higher altitudes.

To this we must add that many models expose the danger of the Dengue mosquito becoming an invasive species: that, by transit of people or goods, it ends up settling in places far away from its current habitat, carrying the disease with it.

So, are we saying that Dengue should scare us just like COVID-19, or even more? Not at all. But outbreaks like the one taking place should not go unnoticed in any case.

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