Global Courant
Peru’s worst dengue outbreak on record could increase further as an El Niño climate event brings torrential rains and mosquitoes, pushing the death toll above 200 this year with more than 130,000 cases recorded, the Ministry of Health said. Public Health Thursday.
Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne tropical disease that can cause high fever, headache, vomiting, muscle and joint pain, and sometimes death.
A doctor monitors dengue patients as they rest under a mosquito net at the Support Hospital II in Sullana, Piura Department, northern Peru, on June 9, 2023. (ERNESTO BENAVIDES/AFP via Getty Images)
An employee of the Ministry of Health smokes against the dengue virus in the San Juan de Lurigancho neighborhood of Lima, Peru, on Friday, May 19, 2023. (Sebastian Castaneda/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The country’s health authorities have pointed to the phenomenal natural climate, El Niño, as one of the main causes of the increase in cases.
El Niño is a cyclical warming of the world’s oceans and weather, fueling tropical cyclones in the Pacific Ocean, increasing rainfall and flood risk in the region. The increase in rainfall is causing a massive reproduction of mosquitoes due to the accumulation of water in the cities.
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Peru’s health officials are banning residents from storing stagnant water in open containers, hoping to prevent runoff.
“Dengue is deadly,” Health Minister Rosa Gutiérrez said in a statement Tuesday. “So help me eliminate mosquito breeding grounds.”
Health workers move a patient with dengue fever at the Support Hospital II in Sullana, Piura Department, northern Peru, on June 9, 2023. (ERNESTO BENAVIDES/AFP via Getty Images)
On Thursday, June 8, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) declared that an El Niño is now underway. The past three years have been dominated by the cooler La Niña pattern.
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Scientists say this year looks particularly worrying. The last strong El Niño was in 2016 and the world experienced its warmest year on record.
“We’re in unprecedented territory,” said Michelle L’Heureux, a meteorologist at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.
A nurse works alongside dengue patients as they rest under mosquito nets at the Support Hospital II in Sullana, Piura Department, northern Peru, on June 9, 2023. (ERNESTO BENAVIDES/AFP via Getty Images)
Peruvian President Dina Boluarte on Thursday signed a decree declaring a “state of emergency” for two months in 18 of the country’s 24 regions, allowing swift official action this year and next in case of “imminent danger from heavy rains” .
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Gutiérrez said the figure is the highest since 2017, when there were 68,290 cases and 89 deaths.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Sarah Rumpf-Whitten is a writer on Fox News Digital’s breaking news team. You can reach her on Twitter at @s_rumpfwhiteten.
